■^A/ 


LIBRARY    OF    THE    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.    J. 
PRESENTED  BY 

A.    G.    CAMERON 

Division ±r^.>^  ^     I    I  O 

Section :....! '      *  "-^ 


'^ 


t 


A.  lEARY&CO.'S 

lEAP  BOOK  STORE, 

.  138  North  2ci  St., 
doors  bplow  New, 
Philada. 


^nr 


n 


* 


■f^-f 


I 


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NOTES 

ON    THE 

MIRACLES  OF  OUR  LORD. 

BY    THE 

REV.  RICHARD  C.  TRENCH,  M.  A. 

One  volume,  8vo.    Price,  $1.75. 

"This  book  is  a  reprint  of  an  English  work.  The  author  is  Professor  of  Divir  ity  in  King's  Col- 
lege, London,  and  is  the  author  of  a  standard  work,  also  reprinted  in  this  country,  on  the  '  Parables 
ot  our  Lord.'  We  have  examined  the  book  before  us  with  some  little  attention  ;  and  feel  gratified  at 
the  results  of  the  examination.  We  have  nothing  in  the  English  language,  on  this  subject,  which 
fan  compare  in  elaborateness  and  critical  value  with  the  work  of  Mr.  Trench.  The  style  of  treatment 
adopted  by  Mr.  Trench  is  plain  and  familiar,  following  the  course  of  the  Scripture  narrative,  and  is 
eminently  apologetic.  Ditliculties  are  met  and  cleared  away  with  a  readiness  that  shows  familiarity, 
not  only  with  the  records  themselves,  but  with  the  almost  infinite  theological  cuntruversies  to  which 
they  have  given  rise.  The  author  relies  much  on  the  authority  of  the  Fathers.  lie  is  evident'y  fa- 
miliar with  their,  'n  some  respects,  incomparable  productions,  particularly  with  the  writings  of  that 
clear  thinker  and  master  in  theology,  Augustine,  bishop  of  Hippo.  These  ancient  writing;,  he  uses 
often  by  way  of  illustration,  very  aptly.  Mr.  T.  is  familiar,  too,  with  the  productions  of  the  German 
theologians,  and  makes  good  use  of  them  in  his  Notes,  now  by  confuting  them,  now  by  adducing 
their  testimony  in  support  of  his  own  views.  Without  this  knowledge  of  what  the  Germans  have 
said,  no  man,  of  the  present  day,  need  expect,  we  may  safeiy  say,  to  contribute  any  thing  really 
scholarlike,  valuable,  or  permanent  to  theological  literature.  Mr.  Trench  knows  well  the  truth  of  this 
assertion.  Indeed,  the  most  valuable  suggestions  in  his  present  work  Lear  the  mark  of  their  German 
origin.  Not  that  the  writer  has  borrowed  without  due  credit  from  others  ;  but  he  has  become  imbued, 
by  his  plan  of  study,  with  the  critical  spirit  of  his  masters. 

"  The  Miracles  treated  of  are  thirty-three  in  number.  There  is  prefixed  to  the  main  body  of  the 
work,  a  Preliminary  Essay  on  Miracles,  in  which  the  author  discourses  in  an  interesting  and  masterly 
manner  on  the  six  following  points  :  a.)  their  Names ;  b.)  their  Nature  ;  c.)  their  Authority  ;  d.)  the 
Evangelical  compared  witli  other  Cycles;  ^-j  Assaults  on  them  ;  f.)  their  Apologetic  Worth. — ^The 
book  is  neatly  bound  in  muslin." 

"This  is  a  work  of  great  learning,  evincing  also  on  the  part  of  the  author,  much  thought  and  re- 
flection. He  draws  very  largely  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  both  for  his  opinions  and  elucidae 
tions,  and  to  a  Churchman  especially,  it  is  pussessed  of  much  interest  and  many  attractions.  The 
Btyle  is  clear  and  nervous,  and  the  writer  evidently  fond  of  bterary  and  theological  research,  whos 
mind  seems  to  have  been  fully  and  intensely  occupied  with  the  subje.t.  He  states  his  0])inions  boldly' 
and  is  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  the  different  sources  whence  they  are  derived.  He  has,  in  the 
amount  of  intelligence  he  has  condensed  and  communicated  in  this  volume,  been  of  great  assistance 
to  the  lovers  of  sacred  lore,  and  the  subject  which  he  has  chosen  for  discussi(m  is  of  itself  of  so  im- 
posing a  character,  as  to  command  in  his  readers  their  fixed  interest  and  attention.  Some  have  con- 
fidered  this  work  as  unequalled  on  this  subject." 

"The  book  contains  a  preliminary  essay  on  the  names  of  miracles;  the  miracles  and  nature  ;  the 
authority  of  the  miracle ;  the  evangelical  compared  with  other  cycles  of  miracles  ;  the  assaults  on  the 
miracles,  and  the  apologetic  worth  of  the  miracles. 

"  The  miracles  of  our  Saviour  are  then  treated  of  in  their  order,  commencing  with  the  Water  made 
Wine  at  Cana,  and  concluding  with  the  second  Miraculous  Draught  of  Fishes;  thirty-three  in 
number. 

"That  this  part  of  the  Sacred  History  is  the  legitimate  theme  of  a  work,  such  as  this  claims  to  be, 
is  apparent.  Christ's  Miracles  form  a  distinct  feature  of  the  history  of  his  mission  upon  earth.  It  is 
that  feature  of  his  public  life  which  attracts  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  challenges  tiie  closest 
scrutiny.  If  this  scrutiny  succeeds  in  proving  their  genuineness,  the  claims  of  Jesus  as  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  are  for  ever  established  ;  since  when  once  proved  genuine,  they  are  miracles  to  us,  precisely 
as  much  as  to  those  who  with  their  own  eyes  looked  upon  them. 

"  In  the  treatment  of  these  subjects  the  author  makes  a  critical  examination  of  the  text,  illustrated 
with  copious  notes,  so  as  to  place  before  the  reader  a  full  exposition  of  all  the  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  miracle.  The  practical  as  well  as  general  design  ot  such  a  miracle  is  also  fully  j)ointed  out, 
so  that  the  reader  is  put  in  posession  of  the  scope  and  bearing  of  this  part  of  the  work  ot  our  Saviour 
considered  by  itself. 

"To  the  t\ill  understanding  of  the  New  Testament  such  a  treatise  as  this  would  seem  necessary, 
and  the  book  will  undoubtedly  be  found  a  welcome  aid  to  the  Biblical  student  the  Sabbath  School 
teacher,  and  the  general  reader." 


NOTES 


ON   THE 


PARABLES  OF  OUR  LORD 


RICHARD  CHENEVIX  TRENCH,  M.  A., 

PROFESSOR    OF    DIVINITY,    KING's    COLLEGE,    LONDON;    AUTHOR    OF    "  N0TE8 
ON    THE    MIRACLES    OF    OUR    LORD,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


SECOND    AMERICAN    FROM    THE    LAST    ENGLISH    EDITION. 


ISnEW-YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY,  200  BROADWAY. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

G.  S.  APPLETON,  IG4  CHESNUT-ST. 
1851. 


ADVERTISEMENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PUBLISHERS. 


That  a  work  has  reached  a  third  edition  in  England,  although  one  evidence 
of  its  merit,  may  not  always  be  a  safe  orsatisfactory  reason  for  its  republication 
in  this  conntrj'.  But  in  regard  to  the  volume  herewith  sent  forth,  the  subject  of 
which  it  treats  is  of  such  general  interest,  and  the  ability  with  which  it  has  been 
prepared  is  so  marked,  and  has  been  so  universally  acknowledged,  that  the  pub- 
lishers cannot  hesitate  to  believe  they  are  doing  good  service  to  the  cause  of 
sound  theological  learning  in  making  it  accessible  to  a  large  class  of  American 
readers,  who  in  all  probability  would  not  otherwise  be  able  to  possess  it. 

The  parable,  whilst  it  is  amongst  the  earliest  modes  of  conveying  truth  to  the 
mind,  is  at  the  same  time  the  most  effective.  Never  losing  its  vigor  by  age  or 
repetition,  it  convinces  sooner  than  logical  argument,  and  strikes  the  imagination 
more  readily  than  a  living  example.*  From  the  fact  that  the  parables  of  our 
Lord  form  a  very  considerable  portion  of  his  recorded  teaching,  and  that  he  was 
accustomed  by  them  to  enforce  the  highest  moral  precepts,  to  illustrate  important 
points  of  doctrine,  and  to  give  prophetical  intimation  of  future  events  relating  to 
himself  and  his  mission,  it  is  obvious  that  a  competent  knowledge  of  this  portion 
of  the  Gospels,  while  it  is  essential  to  the  Christian  teacher,  is  of  the  greatest  value 
to  every  member  of  the  Church.  And  amply  will  these  aacred  fictions  repay  the 
most  constant  perusal.  Attractive  in  the  highest  degree,  even  to  childhood, 
while  as  yet  like  Samuel  the  little  hearer  "  does  not  know  the  Lord,  nor  is  the 
word  of  the  Lord  yet  revealed  to  him"  (1  Sam.  iii.  7),  they  are  the  delight  of 
riper  manhood,  and  never  fail  to  offer  to  the  attentive  reader,  beauties  to  admire, 

*  Haec  autem  doccndi  ratio,  quaj  facit  ad  illustratior.cm  antiquis  scculis  plurimum 
adhibebatur.  Ut  Hicroglyphica  Uteris,  ita  ParabolaB  argnmontis  erant  antiquiores. 
Atque  hodic  ctiam  et  semper,  eximius  est  et  fiiit  Paraholarum  vi^'(ir;  cum  nee  ar- 
gunienta  tam  pcrspicua  nee  vera  cxempla  tarn  apta,  esse  possint. — Baconi  De  Aug- 
mentis  Scientiarum,  lib.  2,  cap.  13. 


VI  ADVERTISEMENT. 

principles  to  ponder,  and  examples  to  allure.  Thus  do  they  illustrate  the  wisdom 
and  benevolence  of  that  Heavenly  Teacher  "  who  spake  as  never  man  spake," 
and  exhibit  a  skill  in  the  statement  of  moral  principles  to  which  no  merely  human 
intellect  was  ever  equal,  and  a  power  and  beauty  of  illustration  which  no  poet  or 
orator  ever  approached. 

In  the  present  work  the  parables  of  our  Lord  are  collected  together,  compared, 
and  explained ;  and  by  a  judicious  use  of  learning,  and  a  fertile  and  happy  em- 
ployment of  illustrative  comment,  they  are  rendered  eminently  profitable  "  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  and  instruction  in  righteousness."  "  As  a  mere 
delight  to  the  understanding,"  says  Dr.  Arnold,  "  I  know  of  none  greater  than 
thus  bringing  together  the  different  and  scattered  jewels  of  God's  word,  and 
arranging  them  in  one  perfect  group.  For  whatever  is  the  pleasure  of  contem- 
plating wisdom  absolutely  inexhaustible,  employed  on  no  abstract  matter  of 
science,  but  on  our  very  own  nature,  opening  the  secrets  of  our  hearts,  and  dis- 
closing the  whole  plan  of  our  course  in  life ;  of  the  highest  wisdom  clothed  in  a 
garb  of  most  surpassing  beauty ;  such  is  the  pleasure  to  the  mere  understanding 
of  searching  into  the  words  of  Christ,  and  blending  them  into  the  image  of  his 
perfect  will  respecting  us."  If  the  understanding  can  be  thus  delighted  and 
improved,  can  it  fail  but  that  at  the  same  time  the  heart  M^ill  be  made  better  ? 
Mr.  Trench,  while  informing  the  understanding,  has  never  neglected  the  oppor- 
tunity to  excite  the  affections,  to  regulate  them,  and  lead  them  to  seek  the  blessed 
influences  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which  can  alone  purify  them  and  fit  them  for  the 
service  of  God.  These  "  scattered  jewels  of  God's  word,"  of  which  Dr.  Arnold 
speaks,  he  has  brought  together,  and  fixed  them  in  a  setting,  not  worthy  indeed 
of  their  richness  and  lustre — what  silver,  or  gold  even,  of  human  workmanship 
could  possess  such  value  ? — but  the  framework  is  yet  skilfully  constructed,  and 
is  wrouoht  by  a  devout  as  well  as  a  learned  and  earnest  mind,  and  will  hold  its 
pearls  of  wisdom  so  that  we  may  have  the  opportunity  of  gazing  upon  them  in 
their  concentrated  form  with  delight  and  profit. 

Under  these  convictions  of  the  importance  of  the  subject  and  the  successful 
manner  in  which  it  has  been  treated  by  Mr.  Trench,  this  volume  is  now  com- 
mended to  the  notice  of  American  readers  by  the  Publishers. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 

CHAP. 

I.  On  the  Definition  of  the  Parable 

II.  On  Teaching  by  Parables 

III.  On  the  Interpretation  of  Parables    .  .  . 

IV.  On  other  Parables  besides  those  in  the  Scriptures 


I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

vin. 

JX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

xin. 
-^xiv. 

-     XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 
XVIII. 

XIX. 
XX. 

XXI. 


The 
The 
The 
Tlie 
TIk' 
Thu 
Thu 
Til*- 
Tlie 
Tlu- 
Tlu' 
Tlie 
Till' 
Tlio 

TlK' 

The 
Tlie 
Tlu- 
The 
The 
The 


PARABLES 

Sower  \  , 

Tares  \       . 

Mustard  Seed  ""^ .  • 

Leaven     \.  .  . 

Hid  Treasure  -^.  . 

Pearl      \    . 

Draw  Net    X    , 

Uniin'rciful  Servant   "- 

Laborers  in  the  Vineyard  ^ 

Two  Sons     . 

Wicked  Husbandmen  . 

Marriage;  of  the  King's  Son 

Ten  Virgins 

Taleiit.s 

Seed  Growing  Secretly 

Two  Debtors    iy    •  • 

Good  Samaritan     'Y   • 

f^-iciid  at  Midnight 

Kicli  Fool 

Barren  Fig;  Tree     ^D 

Great  Supjjer   .f 


\ 


PAGE 
.         9 

17 

.    32 
46 


57 

73 

91 

97 
103 
111 
115 
124 
138 
157 
162  ^ 
177 
200 
218 
233 
239 
261 
265 
271 
280 
291 


vm 


CONTENTS. 


XXII.  The  Lost  Sheep 

XXIII.  The  Lost  Piece  of  Money 

--vXXIV.  The  Prodigal  Son 

— >.XXV.  The  Unjust  Steward 

XXVI.  The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus   . 

XXVII.  Unprofitable  Servants 

XXVIII.  The  Unjust  Judge 

XXIX.  The  Pharisee  and  the  Publican 

XXX.  The  Pounds     . 


PAGE 

300 
311 
316 
345 
366 
391 
398 
408 
416 


INTEODUCTOM  EEMAEKS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ON  THE  DEFINITION  OF  THE  PARABLE. 

Those  writers  who  have  had  occasion  to  define  a  parable*  do  not  appear 
to  have  found  it  an  easy  task  to  give  such  a  satisfying  definition  as 
should  omit  none  of  its  distinguishing  marks,  and  yet  at  the  same  time 
include  nothing  that  was  superfluous  and  merely  accidental.  Rather 
than  attempt  to  add  another  to  the  many  definitions  already  given,t  I 
will  seek  to  note  briefly  what  seems  to  me  to  difference  it  from  the  fable, 
the  allegory,  and  such  other  forms  of  composition  as  most  closely  border 
upon  it.  In  the  process  of  thus  distinguishing  it  from  those  forms  of 
composition,  with  which  it  is  most  nearly  allied,  and  therefore   most 

*  nopa/SoXr/,  from  irapafiaXKnv,  projiccre,  objicere,  i.  e.  tI  tIvi,  to  put  forth  one 
thing  before  or  beside  another ;  and  it  is  assumed,  when  irapafioXij  is  used  for  para- 
ble, though  not  necessarily  included  in  the  word,  that  the  purpose  for  which  they 
are  set  side  by  side  is  that  they  may  be  compared  one  with  the  other.  That  this  is 
not  necessarily  included  is  proved  not  only  from  the  derivation,  but  from  the  fact 
that  the  word  itself  and  the  whole  family  of  cognate  words,  a.sirapdfio\os,irapa06\a>s, 
parabolanus,  are  used  in  altogether  a  different  sense,  yet  one  growing  out  of  tho 
same  root,  in  which  the  notion  of  putting  forth  is  retained,  but  it  is  no  longer  for 
the  purpose  of  comparison,  which  is  only  the  accident,  not  of  the  essence  of  the 
word.  Thus  irapdPoKos,  qui  objicit  se  praesentissimo  vitae  periculo,  one  who  exposes 
his  life,  as  those  called  parabolani,  because  they  buried  infected  corpses  at  Alex- 
andria. 

t  Many  ft-om  the  Greek  Fathers  are  to  be  found  in  Suicer's  TVvcs.,  s.  v.  ■Kapafio\-/i. 
Jerome,  on  Mark  iv.,  defines  it  thus:  Sermonem  utilem,  sub  idoneSi  figure  expros- 
sum,  ct  in  recessu,  continentem  spiritualem  aliquam  admonitionem ;  and  he  calls  it 
finely  in  another  place  {Ad  A/gas.),  Quasi  umbra  prajvia.  veritatis.  Among  the 
moderns,  Unger  (Dc  Parab.  Jcsit,  Naturd,  p.  30):  Parabola  Jesu  est  collatio  per 
narratiunculam  fictam,  sed  verisimilem,  seri6  illustrans  rem  sublimiorem.  Teel- 
man  :  Parabola  est  siniilltudo  h.  rebus  communibus  ct  obviis  desumta  ad  significan- 
dum  (|uicquam  spirituale  ct  ca^leste.  Bcngel:  Parabola  est  oratio,  quic  per  narra- 
tioncni  fietani  sed  vcra3  .similem,  h  rebus  ad  vitas  conununis  usum  pertinentibus 
desumtam,  veritates  minus  notas  aut  morales  repnescntat. 


10  ON  THE  DEFINITION 

likely  to  be  confounded,  and  justifying  the  distinction,  its  essential  pro 
perties  will  come  before  us  much  more  clearly  than  I  could  hope  to  bring 
them  in  any  other  way. 

1.  There  are  some  who  have  confounded  the  parable  with  the  ^so- 
pic  fable,  or  drawn  only  a  slight  and  hardly  perceptible  line  of  distinc- 
tion between  them,  as  for  instance  Lessing  and  Storr,  who  affirm  that 
the  fable  relates  an  event  as  having  actually  taken  place  at  a  certain 
time,  while  the  parable  only  assumes  it  as  possible.  But  not  to  say 
that  examples  altogether  fail  to  bear  them  out  in  this  assertion,  the  dif- 
ference is  much  more  real,  and  far  more  deeply  seated  than  this.  The 
parable  is  constructed  to  set  forth  a  truth  spiritual  and  heavenly  :  this 
the  fable,  with  all  its  value,  is  not ;  it  is  essentially  of  the  earth,  and 
never  lifts  itself  above  the  earth.  It  never  has  a  higher  aim  than  to  in- 
culcate maxims  of  prudential  morality,  industry,  caution,  foresight ;  and 
these  it  will  sometimes  recommend  even  at  the  expense  of  the  higher 
self-forgetting  virtues.  The  fable  just  reaches  that  pitch  of  morality 
which  the  world  will  understand  and  approve.  But  it  has  no  place  in 
the  Scripture.*  and  in  the  nature  of  things  could  have  none,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  Scripture  excludes  it ;  that  purpose  being  the  awakening  of  man 
to  a  consciousness  of  a  divine  original,  the  education  of  the  reason,  and 
of  all  which  is  spiritual  in  man,  and  not,  except  incidentally,  the  sharp- 
ening of  the  understanding.  For  the  purposes  of  the  fable,  which  are 
the  recommendation  and  enforcement  of  the  prudential  virtues,  the  regu- 
lation of  that  in  man  which  is  instinct  in  beasts,  in  itself  a  laudable  dis- 
cipline, but  by  itself  leaving  him  only  a  subtler  beast  of  the  field, — for 
these  purposes,  examples  and  illustrations  taken  from  the  world  beneath 
him  are  admirably  suited. f  That  world  is  therefore  the  haunt  and  the 
main  region,  though  by  no  means  the  exclusive  one,  of  the  fable  :  even 
when  men  are  introduced,  it  is  on  the  side  by  which  they  are  connected 

*  The  two  fables  that  are  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  that  of  the  trees  which 
would  choose  a  king  (Judg.  ix.  8-15),  and  the  brief  one  of  the  thistle  and  cedar 
(2  Kin.  xiv.  9),  may  seem  to  impeach  the  universality  of  this  rule,  but  do  not  so  in 
fact.  For  in  neither  case  is  it  God  tha*  is  speaking,  nor  yet  messengers  of  his,  de- 
livering his  counsel :  but  men,  and  from  an  earthly  standing  point,  not  a  divine. 
Jotham  seeks  only  to  teach  the  men  of  Shechem  their  folly,  not  their  sin,  in  making 
Abimelech  king  over  them :  the  fable  never  lifting  itself  to  the  rebuke  of  sin,  as  it 
is  sin ;  this  is  beyond  its  region ;  but  only  in  so  for  as  it  is  also  folly.  And  Jehoash, 
in  the  same  way,  would  make  Amaziah  see  his  presumption  and  pride,  in  challeng- 
ing him  to  the  conflict,  not  thereby  teaching  him  any  moral  lesson,  but  only  giving 
evidence  in  the  fable  which  he  uttered,  that  his  own  pride  was  offended  by  the 
challenge  of  the  Jewish  king. 

t  The  greatest  of  all  fables,  the  Reineke  Fuchs,  affords  ample  illustration  of  all 
this ;  it  is  throughont  a  glorifying  of  cunning  as  the  guide  of  life  and  the  deliverer 
from  all  evil. 


OF  THE  PARABLE.  IX 

with  tliat  lower  world  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  parable,  the 
world  of  animals,  though  not  wholly  excluded,  finds  only  admission  in 
so  far  as  it  is  related  to  man.  The  relation  of  beasts  to  one  another  not 
being  spiritual,  can  supply  no  analogies,  can  be  in  no  wise  helpful  for 
declaring  the  truths  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  all  man's  relations  to 
man  are  spiritual,  many  of  his  relations  to  the  world  beneath  him  are  so 
also.  His  lordship  over  the  animals,  for  instance,  rests  on  his  higher 
spiritual  nature,  is  a  dominion  given  to  him  from  above  ;  therefore,  as  in 
the  instance  of  the  shepherd  and  sheep  (John  x.)  and  elsewhere,  it  will 
serve  to  image  forth  deeper  truths  of  the  relation  of  God  to  man. 

It  belongs  to  this,  the  loftier  standing  point  of  the  parable,  that  it 
should  be  deeply  earnest,  allowing  itself  therefore  in  no  jesting  nor  rail- 
lery at  the  weaknesses,  the  follies,  or  the  crimes  of  men.*  Severe  and 
indignant  it  may  be,  but  it  never  jests  at  the  calamities  of  men,  however 
well  deserved,  and  its  indignation  is  that  of  holy  love :  while  in  this  rail- 
lery, and  in  these  bitter  mockings,  the  fabulist  not  unfrequently  in- 
dulges :t — he  rubs  biting  salt  into  the  wounds  of  men  s  souls — it  may  be, 
perhaps  it  generally  is,  with  a  desire  to  heal  those  hurts,  yet  still  in  a 
very  different  spirit  from  tliat  in  which  the  affectionate  Saviour  of  men 
poured  oil  and  wine  into  the  bleeding  wounds  of  humanity. 

*  Phisdrus'  definition  of  the  fable  squares  with  that  here  given: 

Duplex  libelli  dos  est,  ut  nsiivi  moveat, 
Et  quod  prudenti  vitam  consilio  monot. 

t  As  finds  place,  for  instance,  in  La  Fontaine's  celebrated  foblo. — La  Cigalc  ayant 
chants  tout  I'dtd, — in  which  the  ant,  in  reply  to  the  petition  of  the  grasshopper, 
which  is  starving  in  the  winter,  reminds  it  how  it  sung  all  the  summer,  and  bids  it 
to  dance  now.  That  fable,  commending  as  it  does  foresight  and  prudence,  prepara- 
tion against  a  day  of  need,  might  be  compared  for  purposes  of  contrast  to  more 
than  one  parable  urging  the  same,  as  Matt.  xxv.  1 ;  Luke  xvi.  1 ;  but  with  this 
mighty  difference,  that  the  fabulist  has  onh'  worldly  needs  in  his  eye,  it  is  only  against 
these  that  he  urges  to  lay  up  by  timely  industry  a  sufficient  store ;  while  the  Lord 
in  his  jiarables  would  have  us  to  lay  up  for  eternal  life,  for  the  day  whcm  not  the 
bodies,  but  the  souls  that  have  nothing  in  store,  will  be  naked  and  hungry,  and 
miserable, — to  prepare  for  ourselves  a  reception  into  everlasting  habitations.  The 
image  which  the  French  fabulist  uses  was  very  well  capable  of  such  higher  applica- 
tion, had  he  been  conscious  of  any  such  needs  (see  Prov.  vi.  8,  and  on  that  verse, 
CoTKi.KR,  Palt.  Apos.,  v.  i.  p.  104,  note  13,  and  Augustine,  Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixvi.  2). 
In  Saadi's  far  nobler  fable.  The  Ant  and  the  Nightingale,  from  whence  La  Fon- 
taine's is  undoubtedly  borrowed,  such  application  is  distinctly  intimated.  Von 
Ilannner  has  in  this  view  an  interesting  comparison  between  the  French  and  the 
Persian  fiible  {Gesch.  d.  schon.  Rcddc.  Pers.,  p.  207).— The  fable  with  whieli  Hero- 
dotus (i.  141)  relates  Cyrus  to  have  answered  the  Ionian  ambassadors,  when  they 
offered  him  a  late  submission,  is  another  specimen  of  the  bitter  irony,  of  which  this 
class  of  composition  is  often  the  vehicle. 


12  ON  THE  DEFINITIOjST 

And  yet  again,  there  is  anothei*  point  of  diiFerence  between  the  para- 
ble and  the  fable.  While  it  can  never  be  said  that  the  fabulist  is  re- 
gardless of  truth,  since  it  is  neither  his  intention  to  deceive,  when  he 
attributes  language  and  discourse  of  reason  to  trees,  and  birds,  and 
beasts,  nor  is  any  one  deceived  by  him ;  yet  the  severer  reverence  for 
truth,  which  is  habitual  to  the  higher  moral  teacher,  will  not  allow  him 
to  indulge  even  in  this  sporting  with  the  truth,  this  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  its  laws,  though  upon  agreement,  or,  at  least,  with  tacit  under- 
standing. In  his  mind,  the  creation  of  God,  as  it  came  from  the  Creator's 
hands,  is  too  perfect,  has  too  much  of  reverence  owing  to  it,  to  be  repre- 
sented otherwise  than  as  it  really  is.  The  great  Teacher  by  parables, 
therefore,  allowed  himself  in  no  transgression  of  the  established  laws  of 
nature — in  nothing  marvellous  or  anomalous  ;  he  presents  to  us  no  speak- 
ing trees  or  reasoning  beasts,*  and  we  should  be  at  once  conscious  of  an 
unfitness  in  his  so  doing. 

2.  The  parable  is  different  from  the  mythus,  inasmuch  as  in  the 
mythus,  the  truth  and  that  which  is  only  the  vehicle  of  the  truth  are 
wholly  blended  together :  and  the  consciousness  that  there  is  any  dis- 
tinction between  them,  that  it  is  possible  to  separate  the  one  from  the 
other,  belongs  only  to  a  later  and  more  reflective  age  than  that  in  which 
the  mythus  itself  had  birth,  or  those  in  which  it  was  heartily  believed. 
The  mythic  narrative  presents  itself  not  merely  as  the  vehicle  of  the 
truth,  but  as  itself  being  the  truth ;  while  in  the  parable,  there  is  a  per- 
fect consciousness  in  all  minds,  of  the  distinctness  between  form  and 
essence,  shell  and  kernel,  the  precious  vessel  and  yet  more  precious 
wine  which  it  contains.  There  is  also  the  mythus  of  another  class,  the 
artificial  product  of  a  later  self-conscious  age,  of  which  many  inimitable 
specimens  are  to  be  found  in  Plato,  devised  with  distinct  intention  of 
embodying  some  important  spiritual  truth,  of  giving  an  outward  sub- 
sistence to  an  idea.  But  these,  while  they  have  many  points  of  resem- 
blance with  the  parable,  yet  claim  no  credence  for  themselves  either  as 
actual  or  possible  (in  this  differing  from  the  parable),  but  only  for  the 

*  Klinckhardt  {De  Horn.  Div.  ct  Laz.,  p.  2) :  Fabula  aliquocl  vitic  communis 
morumque,  prseceptiim  simplici  et  nonminquam  jocosa.  oratione  illustrat  per  exem- 
plum  plerumque  contra  veram  naturam  fictum :  parabola  autem  sententiam  siibli- 
miorcm  (ad  res  divinas  pertinentem)  simplici  quidem  sed  gravi  et  seria  oratione 
illustrat  per  excmplum  ita  excogitatum  ut  cum  rerum  natura  maxime  convenire 
vidcatur.  And  Cicero  {De  Invent.,  1.  19)  :  Fabula  est  in  qua  nee  verse  nee  verisi- 
miles  res  continentur.  But  of  the  parable  Origen  says,  "Eo-ri  iropa|3oAi),  \6yos  ds 
TTepl  ytfofievov,  fii]  yivofiivov  fikv  Kara  rh  pr}T6v,  Suvafxeyov  5e  yevea^ai.  There  is  then 
some  reason  for  the  foult  which  Calov  finds  with  Grotius,  though  he  is  only  too 
ready  to  find  fault,  for  commonly  using  the  terras  fabula  and  fnbcUa  in  speaking 
of  our  Lord's  parables,  terms  which  certainly  have  an  mipleasant  soimd  in  the  oar. 


OF  THE  PARABLE.  13 

truth  which  they  embody  and  declare.  The  same  is  the  case  when  upon 
some  old  legend  or  myth  that  has  long  been  current,  there  is  thrust  some 
spiritual  significance,  clearly  by  an  afterthouglit ;  in  which  case  it  per- 
ishes in  the  letter  that  it  may  live  in  the  spirit ;  all  outward  subsistence 
is  denied  to  it,  for  the  sake  ,of  asserting  the  idea  which  it  is  made  to  con- 
tain. To  such  a  process,  as  is  well  known,  the  latter  Platonists  submit- 
ted the  old  mythology  of  Greece.  For  instance.  Narcissus  falling  in  lovo 
with  his  own  image  in  the  water-brook,  and  pining  there,  was  the  sym- 
bol of  man  casting  himself  forth  into  the  world  of  shows  and  appearances, 
and  expecting  to  find  the  good  that  would  answer  to  his  nature  there, 
but  indeed  finding  only  disappointment  and  death.  It  was  their  mean- 
ing hereby  to  vindicate  that  mythology  from  charges  of  absurdity  or 
immorality — to  put  a  moral  life  into  it,  whereby  it  should  maintain  its 
ground  against  the  new  life  of  Christianity,  though  indeed  they  were 
only  thus  hastening  the  destruction  of  whatever  lingering  faith  in  it 
there  yet  survived  in  the  minds  of  men. 

3.  The  parable  is  also  clearly  distinguishable  from  the  proverb,* 
though  it  is  true  that  in  a  certain  degree,  the  words  are  used  inter- 
changeably in  the  New  Testament,  and  as  equivalent  the  one  to  the  other. 
Thus  ••  Physician  heal  thyself"  (Luke  iv.  23),  is  termed  a  parable,  being 
more  strictly  a  proverb  ;  so  again,  when  the  Lord  had  used  that  proverb, 
probably  already  familiar  to  his  hearers,!  "  If  the  blind  lead  the  blind, 
both  shall  fall  in  the  ditch,"  Peter  said,  '-Declare  unto  us  this^;araZ»/e" 
(Matt.  XV.  14,  15);  and  again,  Luke  v.  36  is  a  proverb  or  proverbial 
expression,  rather  than  a  parable,  which  name  it  bears.  So,  upon  the 
other  hand,  those  are  called  proverbs  in  St.  John,  which,  if  not  strictly 
parables,  yet  claim  much  closer  afiinity  to  the  parable  than  to  the  pro- 
verb, being  in  fact  allegories :  thus  Christ's  setting  forth  of  his  relations 
to  his  people  under  those  of  a  shepherd  to  his  sheep,  is  termed  a  "  pro- 
verb," though  our  translators,  holding  fast  to  the  sense  ratlier  than  to 
the  letter,  have  rendered  it  a  "  parable."  (John  x.  6,  compare  xvi.  25, 
29.]:)  It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  how  this  interchange  of  the  two  words 
should  have  come  to  pass.  Partly  from  the  fact  which  has  been  noted 
by  many,  of  there  being  but  one  word  in  the  Hebrew  to  signify  both  par- 
able and  proverb ;  which  circumstance  must  have  had  considerable  in- 
fluence upon  writers  accustomed  to  think  in  that  language,  and  itself 

*  Uupoifxia,  that  is,  irap'  oTfuov,  a  trite,  ?Pffi//side  saying.  =  irapoSia.  But  some  derive 
it  from  o!:;UTj,  a  tale,  or  i)0('m.  Yet  Passow's  explanation  of  the  latter  word  .shows 
that  at  the  root  the  two  derivations  are  the  same. — See  Sl'icer's  T/ws.,  a.  v.  irapoinla. 

t  It  is  current  at  least  now  in  the  East,  as  I  find  it  in  a  collection  of  Turkish 
Proverbs  in  Vov  IIammkfi's  M>rgeal.  Klcclhatt  j).  03. 

X  The  word  irapafiu\i^  never  occurs  in  St.  John,  nor  wapotfiia  in  the  three  first 
Evanffeli.sts. 


14  OK  THE  DEFINITION 

arose  from  the  parable  and  proverb  being  alike  enigmatical  and  some- 
what obscure  forms  of  speech,  "  dai-k  sayings,"  speaking  a  part  of  their 
meaning  and  leaving  the  rest  to  be  inferred.*  This  is  evidently  true  of 
the  parable,  and  in  fact  no  less  so  of  the  proverb.  For  though  such 
proverbs  as  have  become  the  heritage  of  an  entire  people,  and  have  ob- 
tained universal  currency,  may  be,  or  rather  may  have  become,  plain 
enough,  yet  in  themselves  proverbs  are  most  often  enigmatical,  claiming 
a  quickness  in  detecting  latent  affinities,  and  oftentimes  a  knowledge 
which  shall  enable  to  catch  more  or  less  remote  allusions,  for  their  right 
comprehension. t  And  yet  further  to  explain  how  the  terms  should  be 
often  indifferently  used, — the  proverb,  though  not  necessarily,  is  yet 
very  commonly  parabolical,^  that  is,  it  rests  upon  some  comparison  either 
expressed  or  implied,  as  for  example,  2  Pet.  ii.  22.  Or  again,  the  pro- 
verb is  often  a  concentrated  parable,  for  instance  that  one  above  quoted, 
"  If  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch,"  might  evi- 
dently be  extended  with  ease  into  a  parable ;  and  in  like  manner,  not 
merely  many  proverbs  might  thus  be  beaten  out  into  fables,  but  they  are 
not  unfrequently  allusions  to  or  summiugs  up  in  a  single  phrase  of  some 
well-known  fable. ^ 

4.  It  only  remains  to  consider  wherein  the  parable  differs  from  the 
allegory,  which  it  does  in  form  rather  than  in  essence :  there  being  in 
the  allegory,  an  interpenetration  of  the  thing  signifying  and  the  thing 
signified,  the  qualities  and  properties  of  the  first  being  attributed  to  the 
last,  and  the  two  thus  blended  together,  instead  of  being  kept  quite  dis- 
tinct and  placed  side  by  side,  as  is  the  case  in  the  parable.  ||     Thus,  John 


*  So  we  find  our  Saviour  contrasts  the  speaking  in  proverbs  and  parables  (John 
xvi.  25),  with  the  speaking  plainly,  irappTiaiq.  (ttSi/  pruxa).  every  word. 

■f  For  instance,  to  take  two  common  Greek  proverbs :  Xpvffea  xaA/ceiajr  would 
require  some  knowledge  of  the  Homeric  narrative,  BoDs  iirl  yAcocrcrr^s,  of  Attic 
moneys  The  obscurity  that  is  in  i^roverbs,  is  sufficiently  sho^vn  by  the  fact  of  such 
books  as  the  Adagia  of  Erasmus,  in  which  he  brings  all  his  learning  to  bear  on 
their  elucidation,  and  yet  leaves  many  of  them  withoiit  any  satisfactory  explanation. 
And  see  also  the  Paramiographi  Graci  (Oxf  1836),  p.  xi.-xvi. 

:):  It  is  not  necessarily,  as  some  have  affirmed,  a  ?^6yos  i(Txny-a-'^t<^iJ-^vos,  for  in- 
stance 'TSsX^p^v  'dScopa  Saipa,  or  VAvKxis  aneiptf  irSXefj-os,  and  innumerable  others  are 
expressed  without  figure ;  but  very  many  are  also  parabolical,  and  generally  the 
best,  and  those  which  have  become  most  truly  popular. 

^  Quintilian  says,  Xlapoi/xia  fiibella  brevior  .  .  .  Parabola  longius  res  qure  compa- 
rentur  rcpetere  .solet.  On  the  distinction  between  the  napafioXr)  and  irapoL/xia,  there 
are  some  good  remarks  in  H.\se's  Thcs.  Nov.  Tlieol.  Pkilolog.,  v.  2.  p.  503. 

II  Thus  LowTH  {Dc  Sac.  Pocs.  Hcb.,  Pml.  10):  His  denique  subjicienda  est 
quasi  lex  qufedam  parabola,  nimirum  ut  per  omnia  sibi  constet,  neque  arcessitis 
propria  admista  habeat.  In  quo  raultl^m  differt  a  prima  allegorioe  specie,  qua  a 
simplici  mctaphora  paulatim  procedens,  non  semper  continufe  cxcludit  proprium,  S. 


OF  THE  PARABLE.  15 

XV.  1-8,  "  I  am  the  true  vine.  &c.."  is  throughout  an  allegory,  as  there 
are  two  allegories  scarcely  kept  apart  from  one  another,  John  x.  1-16, 
the  first,  in  which  the  Lord  sets  himself  fortli  as  the  Door  of  the  sheep, 
the  second,  as  the  good  Shepherd.  So.  '•  Behold  th(f  Lamb  of  God,"  is 
an  allegorical,  "  He  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,"  a  parabolical 
expression.*  The  allegory  needs  not,  as  the  parable,  an  interpretation 
to  be  brought  to  it  from  without,  since  it  contains  its  interpretation 
within  itself,  and,  as  the  allegory  proceeds,  tlic  interpretation  proceeds 
hand  in  hand  with  it,  or  at  least  never  falls  far  behind  it  ;t  and  thus  the 
allegory  stands  to  the  metaphor,  as  the  more  elaborate  and  long  drawn 
out  composition  of  the  same  kind,  in  the  same  relation  that  the  parable 
does  to  the  isolated  comparison  or  simile.  And  as  many  proverbs  are, 
as  we  have  seen,  concise  parables,  in  like  manner  many  also  are  brief 
allegories.  For  instance  the  following,  which  is  an  Eastern  proverb, — 
"  This  world  is  a  carcass,  and  they  who  gather  round  it  are  dogs," — does 
in  fact  interpret  itself  as  it  goes  along,  and  needs  not  therefore  that  an 
interpretation  be  brought  to  it  from  without ;  while  it  is  otherwise  with 
the  proverb  spoken  by  our  Lord,  '•  Wheresoever  the  carcass  is  there 
will  the  eagles  be  gathered  together," — this  gives  no  help  to  its  own 
interpretation  from  within,  and  is  a  saying,  of  which  the  darkness  and 
difficulty  have  been  abundantly  witnessed  by  the  many  interpretations 
of  it  which  have  been  proposed. 

To  sum  up  all  then,  the  parable  differs  from  the  fable,  moving  as  it 
does  in  a  spiritual  world,  and  never  transgressing  the  actual  order  of 
things  natural, — from  the  mythus,  there  being  in  the  latter  an  uncon- 


propriis  in  translata  paulatim  illapsa,  nee  minus  leniter  ex  translatis  in  propria  per 
gradus  quo.sdam  se  recipiens. 

*  Thu.s,  Isai.  v.  1-6  is  a  parable,  of  which  the  explanation  is  separately  given, 
ver.  7 ;  while  on  the  other  hand.  Ps.  Ixxx.  8-16,  resting  on  the  same  image,  is  an 
allegory ;  since,  for  instance,  the  casting  out  of  the  luathen,  tliat  the  innc  might  be 
planted,  is  an  intermingling  of  the  thing  signifying  and  that  signified,  wherein  the 
note  that  distinguishes  the  allegory  from  the  parable  consists,  as  Quihtilian  {List. 
viii.  .3  77)  observes;  for  having  defined  the  allegory,  he  proceeds:  In  omni  autem 
iraf)a8o\il  -lut  prajcedit  similitudo.  res  se(iuitur.  aut  prrecedit  res,  sirailitudo  sequi- 
tur ;  sed  interim  libera  et  separata  est.  The  allegory  then  is  transXaXio,  the  parable 
crt/latio.— Since  writing  the  above  I  find  that  Bishop  Lowth  {De  Sac.  Poes.  Hai., 
Prerl.  10)  has  adduced  these  same  exami)les  from  Isaiah  and  the  Psalmist  to  illus- 
trate the  distinction. 

t  Of  all  this  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  affords  ample  illustration,  "Interpreter" 
appearing  there  as  one  of  the  persons  of  the  allegory.  Mr.  Hallam  (Lifer,  of 
Europe,  v.  4,  p.  553)  mentions  this  as  a  certain  drawback  upon  the  book.  that.  "  in 
his  language,  Bunyan  sometimes  mingles  the  signification  too  much  with  the  fable; 
we  might  be  p(Ti)lexed  between  the  imaginary  and  the  real  Christian:"  but  is  not 
this  of  the  very  ruiture  of  the  allegorical  fal)le  7 


16  ON  THE  DEFIISriTIOlSr  OF  THE  PAEABLE. 

scious  blending  of  the  deeper  meaning  with  the  outward  symbol,  the 
two  remaining  separate  and  separable  in  the  parable, — from  the  proverb, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  longer  carried  out,  and  not  merely  accidentally  and 
occasionally,  but  necessarily  figurative, — from  the  allegory,  comparing 
as  it  does  one  thing  with  another,  at  the  same  time  preserving  them 
apart  as  an  inner  and  an  outer,  not  transferring,  as  does  the  allegory, 
the  properties  and  qualities  and  relations  of  one  to  the  other. 


CHAPTER  11. 

ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

However  our  Lord  may  on  one  or  more  occasions  have  made  use  of 
this  manner  of  teaching  by  parables,  with  the  intention  of  withdrawing 
from  certain  of  his  hearers  the  knowledge  of  truths,  which  they  were 
unworthy  or  unfit  to  receive  ;*  yet  we  may  assume  as  certain  that  his 

*  Macrobius  {Somn.  Scip.,  1.  i.  c.  2) :  Figuris  defendentibus  h.  vilitatc  secretum. 
No  one  can  deny  that  this  was  sometimes  the  Lord's  purpose,  who  is  not  prepared 
to  do  great  violence  to  his  words,  as  recorded  by  the  three  first  Evangelists. 
(Matt.  y'ii.  xCkIS;  Markiv.  11, 12;  Luke  viii.  9. 10.)  "When  we  examine  the  words 
themselves,  we  find  them  in  St.  Mark  to  wear  their  strongest  and  severest  aspect. 
There  and  in  St.  Luke,  the  purpose  of  speaking  in  parables  is  said  to  be  that 
(Iva.  which  can  be  nothing  else  than  Tf\tKm)  seeing  they  might  not  see ;  while  in 
St.  Matthew  he  speaks  in  parables,  because  (Sti)  they  seeing  see  not.  In  Matthew 
and  Mark  it  is  said  to  be  so  done,  lest  {/xTjiTore)  at  any  time  they  should  see  with 
theu-  eyes;  while  in  Luke  this  part  of  the  sentence  is  entirely  wanting.  The 
attempt  has  been  made  to  evacuate  Xva  and  fi-fiirore  of  their  strength,  these  being 
clearly  the  key-words  ;  thus  yva=3Ti,  and  iMTiiroTe=fiirore,  "if  perchance  ;"  to  jus- 
tify which  last  use,  reference  is  made  to  2  Tim.  ii.  25,  fi-ffirore  Sti-p  avTois  6  Qths  ixe- 
rivoiav,  "  if  God  perad venture  will  give  them  repentance  ;"  so  that  thus  we  should 
get  back  to  the  old  meaning,  that  the  aim  of  his  teaching  by  parables  was,  because 
they  could  not  understand  in  any  other  way,  and  if  perchance  the  Lord  would  give 
them  repentance.  Now  there  is  no  question  that  such  might  be  the  sense  given 
to  ix-fiitore,  but  even  if  the  3ti  could  be  as  successfully  dealt  with,  which  it  certainly 
cannot,  there  is  still  the  passage  of  Isaiah  in  the  way.  "Where  would  then  be  the 
fulfilment  of  his  prophecy  1  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Prophet  there  speaks 
of  a  penal  blindness,  as  even  Gesenius  allows,  a  punishment  of  the  foregoing  sins 
of  his  people,  and  namely,  this  punishment,  that  they  should  be  unable  to  recog- 
nize what  was  divine  in  his  mission  and  character ;  which  prophecy  had  its  ulti- 
mate and  crouTiing  fulfilment,  when  the  Jewish  people  were  so  darkened  by- 
previous  carnnl  thoughts  and  works,  that  they  could  see  no  glory  and  no  beauty 
ill  Christ,  could  recognize  nothing  of  divine  in  the  teaching  or  person  of  him  who 
was  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  It  is  not  that  by  the  command,  "  Make  the  heart  of 
this  people  fat"  (Isai.  vi.  10),  we  need  understand  as  though  any  peculiar  harden- 
ing then  passed  upon  them,  but  that  the  Lord  having  constituted  as  the  righteous 
law  of  his  moral  government,  that  sin  .should  produce  darkness  of  heart  and  moral 
insensibility,  declared  that  he  would  allow  the  law  in  their  case  to  take  its  course, 
2 


18  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

general  aim*  was  not  different  from  that  of  others  who  have  used  this 
method  of  teaching,  and  who  have  desired  thereby  to  make  clearer,| 
either  to  illustrate  or  to  prove,  the  truths  which  they  had  in  hand  : — I 
say  either  to  illustrate  or  to  prove  ;  for  the  parable,  or  other  analogy  to 
spiritual  truth  appropriated  from  the  world  of  nature  or  man,  is  not 
merely  illustration,  but  also-  in  some  sort  proof  It  is  not  merely  that 
these  analogies  assist  to  make  the  truth  intelligible,  or,  if  intelligible 
before,  present  it  more  vividly  to  the  mind,  which  is  all  that  some  will 
allow  theni-l  Their  power  lies  deeper  than  this,  in  the  harmony  un- 
consciously felt  by  all  men,  and  by  deeper  minds  continually  recognized 


and  so  also  with  this  latter  generation ;  even  as  that  law  is  declared  in  the  >atter 
half  of  Rom.  i.,  to  have  taken  its  course  with  the  Gentile  world;  in  Augiistine's 
awful  words,  Deus  solus  magnns,  lege  infatigabili  spargens  poenales  csecitates  super 
illicitas  cupidines  ;  who  says  also  in  another  place,  Quorundam  peccatormn  perpe- 
trandorum  facilitas,  poena  est  aliorum  prfecedentium.  The  fearful  curse  of  sin  is 
that  it  ever  has  the  tendency  to  reproduce  itself,  that  he  who  sows  in  sin  reaps  in 
spiritual  darkness,  which  delivers  him  over  again  to  worse  sin ;  all  which  is  won- 
derfully expressed  by  Shakspeare  ; — 

For  when  we  m  our  viciousness  grow  hard, 

Oh  misery  on't,  the  wise  gods  seal  our  eyes, 

In  our  own  filth  drop  our  clear  judgments,  make  us 

Adore  our  errors,  laugh  at  us,  while  we  strut 

To  our  confusion. 

*  Bacon  has  noted  this  double  purpose  of  parables  (De  Sap.  Vet.) ;  Duplex 
apud  homines  repertus  est  atque  increbuit  parabolarum  usus,  atque  quod  magis 
mirum  sit,  ad  contraria  adhibetur.  Faciunt  enim  parabolas  ad  involucrum  et  ve- 
lum, faciunt  etiam  ad  lumen  et  illustratiouem.  See  also  Dc  Augm.  Scicnt.,  1. 2.  c.  13 ; 
and  the  remarkable  passage  from  Stobajus,  on  the  teaching  of  Pythagoras,  quoted 
in  Potter's  edit,  of  Clemens  Alesandrinus,  p.  676 ;  note. 

f  This  has  been  acknowledged  on  all  sides,  equally  by  profane  and  sacred  wri- 
ters ;  thus  Quintilian  {Inst.  viii.  3,  72.) :  Prseclare  vero  ad  inferendam  rebus  lucem 
repertae  sunt  similitudines.  And  Seneca  styles  them,  admiuicula  nostras  imbecili- 
tatis.  Again,  they  have  been  called,  Medias  scientiam  inter  et  ignoi-antiam.  The 
author  of  the  treatise  ad  Herennium :  Similitudo  sumitur  aut  ornandi  causa  aut 
probandi,  aut  apertius  docendi,  aut  ante  oculos  ponendi.  Tertullian.  {De  Resur. 
Car.,  c.  33).  expressly  denies  of  parables,  that  they  darken  the  light  of  the  Gospel 
(obumbrant  Evangelii  lucem).  See  also  the  quotation  from  Chrysostom  in  Sui- 
cer's  T/ws.  s.  v.  -wapa^oXi],  and  Basil  explains  it,  K6yo'i  w^eAif^os  (j-^t  eTriKpvrf/eus 
fierpias,  with  that  moderate  degree  of  conceahnent  which  shall  provoke,  not  such 
as  shall  repel  or  disappoint,  in(iuiry.  The  Lord,  says  Chrysostom  {Horn.  69  in 
Matth.),  spoke  in  parables,  ipe^i^wv  koI  dieyeipwv,  or  as  he  expresses  it  elsewhere 
{De  Prcc,  Scrm.  2),  that  we  migltt  dive  down  into  the  deep  sea  of  spiritual  know- 
ledge, from  thence  to  fetch  up  pearls  and  precious  stones. 

t  So  Stellini :  Ita  enim  ferfe  comparati  sumus,  ut  cum  impressionis  vivacitate 
notionis  evidentiam  confundamus,  eaque  clarius  intelligere  nos  arbetremur,  quibus 
imaginandi  perculsa  vis  acrius  est,  et  quae  novitate  aliqua  commendantur,  ea  stabi- 
liora  sunt  ad  diuturnitatem  memorise,  neque  vetustate  ulla.  consenescunt. 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  19 

and  plainly  perceived,  between  the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds,  so  that 
analogies  from  the  first  are  felt  to  be  soiuethiug  more  than  illustrations, 
happily  but  yet  arbitrarily  chosen.  They  are  arguments,  and  may  be 
alleged  as  witnesses ;  the  world  of  nature  being  throughout  a  witness 
for  the  world  of  spirit,  proceeding  from  tlie  same  hand,  growing  out  of 
the  same  root,  and  being  constituted  for  that  very  end.  All  lovers  of 
truth  readily  acknowledge  these  mysterious  harmonies,  and  the  force  of 
arguments  derived  from  them.  To  them  the  things  on  earth  are  copies 
of  the  things  in  heaven.  They  know  that  the  earthly  tabernacle  is 
made  after  the  pattern  of  things  seen  in  the  mount  (Exod.  xxv.  40  ; 
1  Chron.  xxviii.  11,  12)  ;*  and  the  question  suggested  by  the  Angel  in 
Milton  is  often  forced  upon  their  meditations, — 

"What  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven  and  things  therein 
Each  to  otlier  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  V'f 

For  it  is  a  great  misunderstanding  of  the  matter  to  think  of  these  as 
happily,  but  yet  arbitrarily,  chosen  illustrations,  taken  with  a  skilful 
selection  from  the  great  stock  and  storehouse  of  unappropriated  images ; 
from  whence  it  would  have  been  possible  that  the  same  skill  might  have 
selected  others  as  good  or  nearly  as  good.  Rather  they  belong  to  one 
another,  the  type  and  the  thing  typified,  by  an  inward  necessity  ;  they 
were  linked  together  long  before  by  the  law  of  a  secret  affinity.J  It 
is  not  a  happy  accident  which  has  yielded  so  wondrous  an  analogy  as 
that  of  husband  and  wife,  to  set  forth  the  mystery  of  Christ's  relation  to 

♦  See  Iren^ds,  Con.  Hcer.,  1.  4,  c.  14,  ^  3. 

t  Many  are  tlic  sayings  of  a  like  kind  among  the  Jewish  Cabbalists.  Thus  in 
the  book  Sohar,  Qnodcunque  in  terra,  est,  id  etiam  in  cfelo  est,  et  nulla  res  tarn 
cxigua  est  in  mundo,  qua;  non  alii  similii,  quae  in  cajlo  est,  correspondeat.  In 
Gfrorer's  Urchristenlhum,  v.  2,  p.  26-30,  and  B'ahr's  Sijmb.  d.  Mos.  Cult.,  v.  1,  p.  109, 
many  Hke  passages  are  quoted.  No  one  was  fuller  of  this  than  Tertullian :  see  his 
magnificent  words  on  the  resurrection  (Dc  Res.  Cam.,  c.  12).  All  thing.s  here,  he 
says,  are  witnesses  of  a  resurreetion,  all  things  in  nature  are  proi)hetic  outlines  of 
divine  oi)erati()ns,  God  not  merely  spcaliing  parable.s,  but  doing  tliera,  (talia  divina- 
runi  viriuni  lineamenta.  non  minus  parabolis  operato  Deo  (jUcim  locuto.)  And 
again,  Dc  Aiiimd,  c.  43  the  activity  of  the  soul  in  sleep  is  for  him  at  once  an  argu- 
ment and  an  illu.stration  which  God  has  provided  us,  of  its  not  being  tied  to  the 
body  to  perish  with  it :  Deus ....  manuni  porrigens  fidei,  facilius  adjuvanda>  per 
imagines  et  paraboles,  sicut  sermonum,  ita  et  rerum. 

:}:  Out  of  a  true  sense  of  this  has  grown  our  use  of  the  word  likely.  There  is  a 
confident  expectation  in  the  minds  of  men  of  the  reappearance  in  higher  spheres, 
of  the  same  laws  and  relations  which  they  have  recognized  in  lower ;  and  thus  that 
which  is  lUce  is  also  likely  or  probable.  Butler's  Aaalosy  is  just  the  unfolding,  as 
he  himself  declares  at  the  beginning,  in  one  particular  line  of  this  thought,  that  the 
like  is  also  the  likely. 


20  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

his  elect  Churcli.  There  is  far  more  in  it  than  this  :  the  earthly  rela- 
tion is  indeed  but  a  lower  form  of  the  heavenly,  on  which  it  rests,  and 
of  which  it  is  the  utterance.  When  Christ  spoke  to  Nieodemus  of  a 
new  birth,  it  was  not  merely  because  birth  into  this  natural  world  was 
the  most  suitable  figure  that  could  be  found  for  the  expression  of  that 
spiritual  act  which,  without  any  power  of  our  own,  is  accomplished 
upon  us  when  we  are  brought  into  God's  kingdom  ;  but  all  the  circum- 
stances of  this  natural  birth  had  been  pre-ordained  to  bear  the  burden 
of  so  great  a  mystery.  The  Lord  is  king,  not  borrowing  this  title  from 
the  kings  of  the  earth,  but  having  lent  his  own  title  to  them — and  not 
the  name  only,  but  so  ordering,  that  all  true  rule  and  government  upon 
earth,  with  its  righteous  laws,  its  stable  ordinances,  its  punishment  and 
its  grace,  its  majesty  and  its  terror,  should  tell  of  Him  and  of  his  king- 
dom which  ruleth  over  all — so  that  "  kingdom  of  Grod  "  is  not  in  fact  a 
figurative  expression,  but  most  literal :  it  is  rather  the  earthly  kingdoms 
and  the  earthly  kings  that  are  figures  and  shadows  of  the  true.  And 
as  in  the  world  of  man  and  human  relations,  so  also  is  it  in  the  world  of 
nature.  The  untended  soil  which  yields  thorns  and  briers  as  its  natural 
harvest  is  a  permanent  type  and  enduring  parable  of  man's  heart,  which 
has  been  submitted  to  the  same  curse,  and  without  a  watchful  spiritual 
husbandry  will  as  surely  put  forth  its  briers  and  its  thorns.  The  weeds 
that  uill  mingle  during  the  time  of  growth  with  the  corn,  and  yet  are 
separated  from  it  at  the  last,  tell  ever  one  and  the  same  tale  of  the 
present  admixture,  and  future  sundering  of  the  righteous  and  the 
wicked.  The  decaying  of  the  insignificant  unsightly  seed  in  the  earth, 
and  the  rising  up  out  of  that  decay  and  death,  of  the  graceful  stalk  and 
the  fruitful  ear,  contain  evermore  the  prophecy  of  the  final  resurrec- 
tion, even  as  this  is  itself  in  its  kind  a  resurrection, — the  same  process 
at  a  lower  stage, — the  same  power  putting  itself  forth  upon  meaner 
things. 

Of  course  it  will  be  always  possible  for  those  who  shrink  from  con- 
templating a  higher  world-order  than  that  imperfect  one  around  them, — 
and  this,  because  the  thought  of  such  would  rebuke  their  own  imper- 
fection and  littleness — who  shrink  too  from  a  witness  for  God  so  near 
them  as  even  that  imperfect  order  would  render — it  will  be  possible  for 
them  to  say  it  is  not  thus,  but  that  our  talk  of  heavenly  things  is  only  a 
transferring  of  earthly  images  and  relations  to  them ; — that  earth  is  not 
a  shadow  of  heaven,  but  heaven,  such  at  least  as  we  conceive  it,  a  dream 
of  earth  ;  that  the  names  Father  and  Son  for  instance  (and  this  is  Arian- 
ism)  are  only  improperly  used  and  in  a  secondary  sense  when  applied  to 
Divine  Persons,  and  then  are  terms  so  encumbered  with  difficulties  and 
contradictions  that  they  had  better  not  be  used  at  all  j  that  we  do  not 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  21 

find  and  recognize  heavenly  things  in  their  earthly  counterparts,  but  only 
dexterously  adapt  them.  This  denial  will  be  always  possible,  and  has 
a  deeper  root  than  that  it  can  be  met  with  argument ;  yet  the  lover  of  a 
truth  which  shall  be  loftier  than  himself  will  not  be  moved  from  his  faith 
tliat  however  man  may  be  the  measure  of  all  things  here,  yet  God  is 
the  measure  of  man, — that  the  same  Lord  who  sits  upon  his  throne  in 
heaven,  does  with  the  skirts  of  his  train  fill  his  temple  upon  earth — that 
these  characters  of  nature  which  every  where  meet  his  eye  are  not  a 
common  but  a  sacred  writing — that  they  are  hieroglyphics  of  God  :  and 
he  counts  this  his  blessedness,  that  he  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  such, 
and  because  in  the  midst  of  them,  therefore  never  without  admonish- 
ment and  teaching. 

For  such  is  in  truth  the  condition  of  man  :  around  him  is  a  sensuous 
world,  yet  not  one  which  need  bring  him  into  bondage  to  his  senses,  but 
so  framed  as,  if  he  will  use  it  aright,  continually  to  lift  him  above  itself 
— a  visible  world  to  make  known  the  invisible  things  of  God,  a  ladder 
leading  him  up  to  the  contemplation  of  heavenly  truth.  And  this  truth 
he  shall  encounter  and  make  his  own,  not  in  fleeing  from  his  fellows  and 
their  works  and  ways,  but  in  the  mart,  on  the  wayside,  in  the  field — 
not  by  stripping  himself  bare  of  all  relations,  but  rather  recognizing  these 
as  instruments  through  which  he  is  to  be  educated  into  the  knowledge 
of  higher  mysteries ;  and  so  dealing  with  them  in  reverence,  seeking 
by  faitlifulness  to  them  in  their  lower  forms  to  enter  into  their  yet  deeper 
significance — entertaining  them,  though  they  seem  but  common  guests, 
and  finding  that  he  has  unawares  entertained  Angels.  And  thus,  besides 
his  revelation  in  words,  God  has  another  and  an  elder,  and  one  indeed 
without  which  it  is  inconceivable  how  that  other  could  be  made,  for  from 
this  it  appropriates  all  its  signs  of  communication.  This  entire  moral 
and  visible  world  from  first  to  last,  with  its  kings  and  its  subjects,  its 
parents  and  its  children,  its  sun  and  its  moon,  its  sowing  and  its  harvest, 
its  light  and  its  darkness,  its  sleeping  and  its  waking,  its  birth  and 
its  death,  is  from  beginning  to  end  a  mighty  parable,  a  great  teaching 
of  supersensuous  truth,  a  help  at  once  to  our  faith  and  to  our  under- 
standing. 

It  is  true  that  men  are  ever  in  danger  of  losing  "  the  key  of  know- 
ledge" which  should  open  to  them  the  portals  of  this  palace :  and  thou 
instead  of  a  prince  in  a  world  of  wonder  that  is  serving  him,  man  moves 
in  the  midst  of  this  world,  alternately  its  taskmaster  and  its  drudge. 
Such  we  see  him  to  become  at  the  two  poles  of  savage  and  falscly-culti- 
yated  life — his  inner  eye  darkened,  so  that  he  sees  nothing,  his  inner 
ear  heavy,  so  that  there  come  no  voices  from  nature  unto  him:  and 
indeed  in  all,  save  only  in  the  one  Man,  there  is  more  or  less  of  the 


22  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

dulled  iar,  and  the  filmed  eye.  There  is  none  to  whom  nature  tells  out 
all  that  she  has  to  tell,  and  as  constantly  as  she  would  be  willing  to  tell 
it.  Now  the  whole  of  Scripture,  with  its  ever-recurring  use  of  figura- 
tive language,  is  a  re-awakcning  of  man  to  the  mystery  of  nature,  a 
giving  back  to  him  the  key  of  knowledge,  the  true  signatura  rerum : 
and  this  comes  out,  as  we  might  expect,  in  its  highest  form,  but  by  no 
means  exclusively,  in  those  which  by  pre-eminence  we  call  the  parables. 
They  have  this  point  of  likeness  with  the  miracles,  that  those  too  were 
a  calling  heed  to  powers  which  were  daily  going  forward  in  the  midst  of 
men,  but  which,  by  their  frequency  and  their  orderly  repetition,  that 
ought  to  have  kindled  the  more  admiration,  had  become  wonder-works 
no  more,  had  lost  the  power  of  exciting  attention,  until  men  had  need  to 
be  startled  anew  to  the  contemplation  of  the  energies  which  were  ever 
working  among  them.  In  like  manner  the  parables  were  a  calling  of 
attention  to  the  spiritual  facts  which  underlie  all  processes  of  nature, 
all  institutions  of  human  society,  and  which,  though  unseen,  are  the 
true  ground  and  support  of  these.  Christ  moved  in  the  midst  of  what 
seemed  to  the  eye  of  sense  an  old  and  worn-out  world,  and  it  evidently 
became  new  at  his  touch  ;  for  it  told  to  man  now  the  inmost  secrets  of 
his  being :  he  found  that  it  answered  with  strange  and  marvellous  cor- 
respondencies to  another  world  within  him, — that  oftentimes  it  helped 
to  the  birth  great  thoughts  of  his  heart,  which  before  were  helplessly 
struggling  to  be  born, — that  of  these  two  worlds,  without  him  and  within, 
each  threw  a  light  and  a  glory  on  the  other. 

For  on  this  rests  the  possibility  of  a  real  teaching  by  parables,  such 
a  teaching  as,  resting  upon  a  substantial  ground,  shall  not  be  a  mere 
building  on  the  air,  or  painting  on  a  cloud, — that  the  world  around  us  is 
a  divine  world,  that  it  is  Grod's  world,  the  world  of  the  same  God  who  is 
teaching  and  leading  us  into  spiritual  truth ;  that  the  horrible  dream  of 
Gnostic  and  Manichaean,  who  would  set  a  great  gulf  between  the  worlds 
of  nature  and  of  grace,  seeing  this  from  a  good,  but  that  from  an  im- 
perfect or  an  evil  power,  is  a  lie  ;  that  being  originally  God's,  it-  is  a 
sharer  in  his  great  redemption.  And  yet  this  redeemed  world,  like 
man,  is  in  part  redeemed  only  in  hope :  it  is  not,  that  is,  in  the  present 
possession,  but  only  in  the  assured  certainty,  of  a  complete  deliverance. 
For  this  too  we  must  not  leave  out  of  sight,  that  nature,  in  its  present 
-state,  like  man  himself,  contains  but  a  prophecy  of  its  coming  glory  ; — 
it  '-groaneth  and  travaileth  ;"  it  cannot  tell  out  all  its  secrets;  it  has  a 
presentiment  of  something,  whicli  it  is  not  yet,  but  which  hereafter  it 
shall  be.  It  too  is  suffering  under  our  curse :  yet  even  thus,  in  its  very 
imperfection  wonderfully  serving  us.  since  thus  it  has  apter  signs  and 
more  fitting  symbols  to  declare  to  us  our  disease  and  our  misery,  and 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  23 

the  processes  of  their  healing  and  removing ; — symbols  not  merely  of 
God's  grace  and  power,  but  also  of  man's  sins  and  -wretchedness :  it  has 
its  sores  and  its  wounds,  its  storms  and  its  wildernesses,  its  lion  and  its 
adder,  by  these  interpreting  to  us  death  all  that  leads  to  death,  no  less 
than  by  its  more  beneficent  workings  life  and  all  that  tends  to  the  re- 
storing and  maintaining  of  life. 

But  while  thus  it  has  this  merciful  adaptation  to  our  needs,  not  the 
less  does  it,  in  this  its  fallen  estate,  come  short  of  its  full  purpose  and 
meaning :  it  fails  in  part  to  witness  for  a  divine  order,  as  the  philoso- 
phic poet,  whose  eye  was  mainly  directed  to  this,  its  disorder  and  defi- 
ciency, exclaimed, 

tanta.  Stat  praidita  culpl : 

it  does  not  give  always  a  clear  witness,  nor  speak  out  in  distinct  accents, 
of  God's  truth  and  love.  Of  these  it  is  oftentimes  the  inadequate  ex- 
pression— yea,  sometimes  seems  not  to  declare  them  at  all,  but  rather  in 
volcano  and  in  earthquake,  in  ravenous  beasts,  and  in  poisonous  herbs,  to 
tell  of  strife  and  discord  and  disharmony,  and  all  the  woful  consequences 
of  the  fall.  But  one  day  it  will  be  otherwise  :  one  day  it  will  be  trans- 
lucent with  the  divine  Idea  which  it  embodies,  and  which  even  now, 
despite  these  dark  spots,  shines  through  it  so  wondrously.  For  no  doubt 
the  end  and  consummation  will  be,  not  the  abolition  of  this  nature,  but 
the  glorifying  of  it, — that  which  is  now  nature  {ncitura\  always,  as  the- 
word  expresses  it,  striving  and  struggling  to  the  birth,  will  then  be 
indeed  born.  The  new  creation  will  be  as  the  glorious  child  born  out 
of  the  world-long  throes  and  anguish  of  the  old.  It  will  be  as  the  snake 
casting  its  wrinkled  and  winter  skin  ;  the  old  world  not  abolished,  but 
putting  off  its  soiled  work-day  garments,  and  putting  on  its  holiday  ap- 
parel for  the  great  Sabbath  which  shall  have  arrived  at  last.  Then, 
when  it  too  shall  have  put  off  its  bondage  of  corruption,  shall  be  deli- 
vered from  whatever  is  now  overlaying  it,  all  that  it  has  at  present  of 
dim  and  contradictory  and  perplexing  shall  disappear.  This  nature, 
too,  shall  be  a  mirror  in  which  God  will  perfectly  glass  himself,  for  it 
shall  tell  of  nothing  but  the  marvels  of  his  wisdom  and  power  and  love. 

But  at  present,  while  this  natural  world,  through  its  share  in  man's 
fall,  has  won  in  fitness  for  the  expression  of  the  sadder  side  of  man's 
condition,  the  imperfection  and  evil  that  cling  to  him  and  beset  him,  it 
has  in  some  measure  lost  in  fitness  for  the  expressing  of  the  higher.  It 
possesses  the  best,  yet  oftentimes  inadequate,  helps  for  this.  These 
human  relationships,  and  this  whole  constitution  of  things  earthly,  share 
in  the  shortcoming  that  cleaves  to  all  which  is  of  the  earth.  Obnoxious 
to  change,  tainted  with  sin,  shut  in  within  brief  limits  by  decay  and 


24  ON  TEACHING  BY  PAEABLES. 

death,  they  are  often  weak  and  temporary,  when  they  have  to  set  forth 
things  strong  and  eternal.  A  sinful  element  is  evidently  mingled  with 
them,  while  they  yet  appear  as  symbols  of  what  is  entirely  pure  and 
heavenly.  They  break  down  under  the  weight  that  is  laid  upon  them. 
The  father  chastens  after  his  own  pleasure,  instead  of  wholly  for  the 
child's  profit ;  in  this  unlike  that  heavenly  Father,  whose  character 
he  is  to  set  forth.  The  seed  which  is  to  set  forth  the  word  of  God,  that 
Word  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever,  itself  decays  and  perishes  at 
last.  Festivals,  so  frequently  the  image  of  the  pure  joy  of  the  kingdom, 
of  the  communion  of  the  faithful  with  their  Lord  and  with  one  another, 
will  often,  when  here  celebrated,  be  mixed  up  with  much  that  is  carnal, 
and  they  come  to  their  close  in  a  few  hours.  There  is  something 
exactly  analogous  to  all  this  in  the  typical  or  parabolical  personages  of 
Scripture — the  men  that  are  to  set  forth  the  Divine  Man.  Through 
their  sins,  through  their  infirmities,  yea,  through  the  necessary  limita- 
tions of  their  earthly  condition,  they  are  unable  to  carry  the  corre- 
spondencies completely  out.  Sooner  or  later  they  break  down ;  and 
very  often  even  the  part  which  they  do  sustain,  they  sustain  it  not  fof  long. 
Thus,  for  instance,  few  would  deny  the  typical  character  of  Solomon. 
His  kingdom  of  peace,  the  splendor  of  his  reign,  his  wisdom,  the  tem- 
ple which  he  reared,  all  point  to  a  greater  whom  he  foreshowed.  Yet 
this  gorgeous  forecasting  of  the  coming  glory  is  vouchsafed  to  us  only 
for  an  instant ;  it  is  but  a  glimpse  of  it  we  catch.  Even  before  his 
reign  is  done,  all  is  beginning  to  dislimn  again,  to  lose  the  distinctness 
of  its  outline,  the  brightness  of  its  coloring.  His  wisdom  is  darkened, 
the  perfect  peace  of  his  land  is  no  more ;  and  the  gloom  on  every  side 
encroaching  warns  us  that  this  is  but  the  image,  not  the  very  substance, 
of  the  things 

Again  we  see  some  men,  in  whom  there  is  but  a  single  point  in  their 
history  which  brings  them  into  typical  relation  with  Christ ;  such  was 
Jonah,  the  type  of  the  Resurrection  :  or  persons  whose  lives  at  one  mo- 
ment and  another  seem  suddenly  to  stand  out  as  symbolic ;  but  then 
sink  back  so  far  that  we  almost  doubt  whether  we  may  dare  to  consider 
them  as  such  at  all,  and  in  whose  case  the  attempt  to  carry  out  the 
resemblance  into  greater  detail  would  involve  in  infinite  embarrassment. 
Samson  will  at  once  suggest  himself  as  one  of  those.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  to  believe  that  something  moi  o  was  not  meant  than  is  contained 
in  the  letier  when  out  of  the  eater  he  brought  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the 
strong  sweetness  (Judg.  xiv.  14),  or  when  he  wrought  a  mightier  de- 
liverance for  Israel  through  his  death  than  he  had  wrought  in  his  life 
(Judg.  xvi.  30).  Yet  we  hesitate  how  far  we  may  proceed.  And  so  it 
is  in  every  case,  for  somewhere  or  other  every  man  is  a  liar :  he  is 
false,  that  is,  to  the  divine  idea,  which  he  was  meant  to  embody,  and 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  26 

fails  to  bring  it  out  in  all  the  fulness  of  its  perfection.  So  that  of  the 
truths  of  God  in  the  language  of  men  (which  language  of  course  in- 
cludes man's  acts  as  well  as  his  words),  of  these  sons  of  heaven  married 
to  the  daughters  of  earth,  it  may  truly  be  said,  "  we  have  this  treasure 
in  earthen  vessels."  And  it  must  ouly  be  looked  for,  that  somewhere 
or  other  the  earthen  vessel  will  appear,  that  the  imperfection  which 
cleaves  to  our  forms  of  utterance,  to  men's  words  and  to  their  works, 
will  make  itself  felt  either  in  the  misapprehensions  of  those  to  whom  the 
language  is  addressed  (as  John  iii.  11).  or  by  the  language  itself 
though  the  best  that  human  speech  could  supply, — by  the  men  them- 
selves, though  the  noblest,  it  may  be,  of  their  age  and  race, — yet 
failing  to  set  forth  the  divine  truth  in  all  its  fulness  and  complete- 
ness.* 

No  doubt  it  was  a  feeling,  working  more  or  less  consciously,  of  the 
dangers  and  drawbacks  that  attend  all  our  means  of  communication,  a 
desire  also  to  see  eye  to  eye,  or,  as  St.  Paul  terms  it,  face  to  facef 

*  It  is  now  rather  eV  fiepovs,  eV  alviyixan.  Si'  iffSwTpov  (1  Cor.  xiii.  9,  12),  eV  iro- 
poifjilais  (.John  xvi.  25).  Cf.  Bernard,  In  Cant.,  Scnn.  31.  8.  A  Persian  mystical 
poet  has  cauglit  this  truth,  whicli  he  has  finely  expressed.  (See  Tholuck's  Blu- 
thensamm.  aus  d.  Morgenl.  Mijstik,  p.  215.) 

Die  Sinnenweli  ein  Schatie  ist  der  Geistwelt, 
Herab  von  dieser  jencr  Nahrunsgmilch  quellt. 
Gefiihle  sind  gefangene  Monarchen, 
Die  in  der  Worte  Kerker  sich  verbargen. 
Tritt  das  Unendliche  in's  Herz  des  Weisen, 
Muss  flugs  liiiiab  er  zum  Verstande  reisen. 
Der  muss  die  Schattenbilder  ihm  gewiihren, 
Damit  er  kcinn'  Unendliches  erkliiren. 
Doch  nimmer  ist  das  Abbild  je  vollkommen, 
Nur  Selbstversliindniss  karin  dir  wahrhaft  frommen. 
Denn  ziehst  aus  jedem  Bild  du  Consequenzen, 
Musst  hier  du  Vieles  wegthun,  dort  ergiinzen. 

t  John  Smith  {Select  Disc,  p.  159),  observes  that  the  later  Platonists  had  three 
terms  to  distinguish  the  different  degrees  of  divine  knowledge,  kut  iirtaTrifjLr}!',  Karit 
uo-fiffiv  and  Kara  irapovfflav.  If  we  assumed  these  into  Christian  theology, — and 
they  very  nearly  agree  with  the  threefold  division  of  St.  Bernard  (/)<?  Consid.,  1.  5, 
c.  3),  the  opinio,  the  fides,  and  the  intellectus  (intuition), — we  might  say  of  the 
first,  that  it  is  common  to  all  men,  being  merely  notional,  knowing  about  God :  the 
second  is  the  privilege  of  the  faithful  now,  the  knowing  God ;  the  third,  the  abro- 
(pavfia  of  the  same  school,  the  Arcanum  facierum  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  will  be 
their  ])ossession  in  the  world  to  come,  the  seeing  God,  the  reciprocity  of  which  is 
finely  indicated  by  Augustine,  when  he  terms  it.  Videre  Videntem.  It  was  this, 
according  to  many  of  the  Jewish  interpreters,  which  Moses  craved  when  he  said, 
"  I  beseech  Thee,  show  me  thy  glory."  but  which  was  denied  him,  as  being  impos- 
sible for  man  in  this  present  life  ;  "  Thou  canst  not  see  my  face,  for  there  shall  no 
man  see  me,  and  live."  (Exod.  xxxiii.  18-20.)  Yet  he  too.  they  say,  came  nearer 
to  this  than  any  other  of  the  Lord's  prophets.  (See  Meuscukn's  N.  T.  ex  Talm. 
illustr.,  p.  373.)    It  is  a  striking  Mohammedan  tradition,  according  to  which  the 


26  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

(1  Cor.  xiii.  12),  which  caused  the  mystics  to  press  with  such  earnest- 
ness and  frequency  that  we  should  seek  to  abstract  ourselves  from  all 
images  of  things  ;  that  to  raise  ourselves  to  the  contemplation  of  pure 
and  naked  truth  is  the  height  of  spiritual  attainment,  towards  which  we 
should  continually  be  struggling.*  But  in  requiring  this  as  a  test 
and  proof  of  spiritual  progress,  in  setting  it  as  the  mark  towards  which 
men  should  strive,  they  were  not  merely  laying  unnecessary  burdens 
on  men's  backs,  but  actually  leading  astray.  For  whether  one  shall 
separate  in  his  own  consciousness  the  form  from  the  essence, — whether 
the  images  which  he  uses  shall  be  to  him  more  or  less  conscious  sym- 
bols,-— does  not  depend  on  his  greater  or  less  advance  in  spiritual  know- 
ledge, but  on  causes  which  may  or  may  not  accompany  religious  growth, 
and  mainly  on  this  one. — whether  he  has  been  accustomed  to  think 
upon  his  thoughts,  to  reflect  upon  the  wonderful  instrument  which  in 
language  he  is  using.  One  who  possesses  the  truth  only  as  it  is  incor- 
porated in  the  symbol,  may  yet  have  a  far  stronger  hold  upon  it — may 
be  influenced  by  it  far  more  mightily — may  far  more  really  be  nour- 
ished by  it  than  another,  who,  according  to  the  mystic  view,  would  be 
in  a  higher  and  more  advanced  state.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  for  them 
who  have  not  merely  to  live  upon  the  truth  themselves,  but  to  guard  it 
fbr  others, — not  merely  to  drink  of  the  streams  of  divine  knowledge,  but 
to  see  that  the  waters  of  its  well-heads  be  not  troubled  for  their  brethren 
— for  them  it  is  well  that  they  should  be  conscious,  and  the  more  con- 
scious the  better,  of  the  wonderful  thing  which  language  is, — of  the 
power  and  mystery,  of  the  truth  and  falsehood,  of  words ;  and  as  a  part 
of  this  acquaintance,  that  the  truth,  and  that  which  is  the  vehicle  of  the 
truth,  should  for  them  be  separable  ;  but  then  it  should  be  even  for 
them  as  soul  and  body,  not  as  kernel  and  husk.  This  last  comparison 
has  been  often  used,  but  when  pushed  far,  may  be  pushed  into  an  error. 
It  has  been  said  that,  as  when  the  seed  is  cast  into  the  ground,  after  a 
time  the  kernel  disengages  itself  from  the  outer  coating,  and  alone 
remains  and  fructifies,  while  the  husk  decays  and  perishes ;  so  in  the 
seed  of  G-od's  word,  deposited  in  man's  heart,  the  sensible  form  must'fall 
off',  that  the  inner  germ  releasing  itself  may  germinate  But  the  image, 
urged  thus  far,  does  not  aptly  set  forth  the  truth — will  lead  in  the  end 
to  a  Quaker-like  contempt  of  the  written  word,  under  pretence  of  having 

Lord  convinced  Moses  how  fearful  a  thing  it  would  be  to  comply  with  his  request, 
"  Show  me  thy  glory,"— by  suffering  a  spark  of  that  glory,  the  fulness  of  which 
Moses  had  craved  to  see,  to  fall  upon  a  mountain,  which  instantly  burst  into  a 
thousand  pieces. 

*  Thauler,  for  instance,  is  continually  urging— Ut  ab  omnibus  imaginibus  de- 
nudcmur  ct  oxuaraur.— Fenelon  the  same  ;  and  indeed  all  the  mystics,  from  Diony- 
sius  downward,  agree  in  this.  • 


ON  TEACHING  'BY  PARABLES.  27 

the  inner  life.  The  outer  covering  is  not  to  fall  off  and  perish,  but  to 
become  glorified,  being  taken  up  by,  and  made  translucent  with,  the 
spirit  that  is  within.  Man  is  body  and  soul,  and  being  so.  the  truth  lias 
for  him  need  of  a  body  and  soul  likewise :  it  is  well  that  he  should 
know  what  is  body  and  what  is  soul,  but  not  that  he  should  seek  to  kill 
the  body,  that  he  may  get  at  the  soul. 

Thus  it  was  provided  for  us  by  a  wisdom  higher  than  our  own,  and 
all  our  attempts  to  disengage  ourselves  wholly  from  sensuous  images 
must  always  in  the  end  be  unsuccessful.  It  will  be  only  a  changing  of 
our  images,  and  that  for  the  worse :  a  giving  up  of  living  realities  which 
truly  stir  the  heart,  and  getting  dead  metaphysical  abstractions  in  their 
room.  The  aim  of  the  teacher,  who  would  find  his  way  to  the  hearts 
and  understandings  of  his  hearers,  will  never  be  to  keep  down  the 
parabolical  element  in  his  teaching,  but  rather  to  make  as  much  and  as 
frequent  use  of  it  as  he  can.  And  to  do  this  effectually  will  need  a 
fresh  effort  of  his  own ;  for  while  all  language  is,  and  of  necessity  must 
be,  more  or  less  figurative,  yet  long  familiar  use  has  worn  out  the 
freshness  of  the  stamp  (who,  for  example,  that  speaks  of  insulting^ 
retains  the  lively  image  of  a  leaping  on  the  prostrate  body  of  a  foe) ;  so 
that  to  create  a  powerful  impression,  language  must  be  recalled,  minted 
and  issued  anew,  cast  into  novel  forms  as  was  done  by  him.  of  whom  it 
is  said,  that  without  a  parable  ('s'&cpa/3oX-»j  in  its  widest  sense)  spake  he 
nothing  to  his  hearers ;  that  is,  he  gave  no  doctrine  in  an  abstract  form, 
no  skeletons  of  truth,  but  all  clothed,  as  it  were,  with  flesh  and  blood. 
He  acted  himself  as  he  declared  to  his  apostles  they  must  act,  if  they 
would  be  scribes  instructed  unto  the  kingdom,  and  able  to  instruct 
others  (Matt.  xiii.  52) ;  he  brought  forth  out  of  his  treasure  things  new 
and  old  :  by  the  help  of  the  old  he  made  intelligible  the  new;  by  the  aid 
of  the  familiar  he  introduced  them  to  that  whicli  was  stransre :  from  the 
known  he  passed  more  easily  to  the  unknown.  And  in  his  own  manner  ' 
of  teaching,  and  in  his  instructions  to  his  apostles,  he  has  given  us  the 
secret  of  all  effectual  teaching, — of  all  speaking  which  shall  leave  behind 
it,  as  was  said  of  one  man's  eloquence,  stings  in  the  minds  and  memories 
of  the  hearers.  There  is  a  natural  delight*  which  the  mind  has  in  this 
manner  of  teaching,  appealing  as  it  does,  not  to  the  understanding  only, 
but  to  the  feelings,  to  the  imagination,  and  in  short  to  the  whole  man ; 
calling  as  it  does  the  whole  man  with  all  his  powers  and  faculties  into 

*  ThisHelight  has  indeed  impressed  itself  upon  our  language  itself.  To  like  Sk 
thing  is  to  compare  it  to  some  otlier  thing  wliicli  we  have  already  before  onr  natu- 
ral, or  our  mind's,  eye:  and  the  pleasurable  emotion  always  arising  from  this  pro- 
cess of  comparison  has  caused  us  to  use  the  word  in  a  far  wider  sense  than  that 
which  belonged  to  it  at  the  first.  That  we  like  what  is  like  is  the  explanation  of 
the  pleasure  which  rhjines  give  us. 


28  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

pleasurable  activity:  and  things  thus  learned  with  delight  are  those 
longest  remembered.* 

Had  our  Lord  spoken  naked  spiritual  truth,  how  many  of  his  words, 
partly  from  his  hearers'  lack  of  interest  in  them,  partly  from  their  lack 
of  insight,  would  have  passed  away  from  their  hearts  and  memories, 
leaving  scarcely  a  trace  behind  them.f  But  being  imparted  to  them  in 
this  form,  under  some  lively  image,  in  some  short  and  perhaps  seemingly 
paradoxical  sentence,  or  in  some  brief  but  interesting  narrative,  they 
awakened  attention,  excited  inquiry,  and  even  if  the  truth  did  not  at  the 
moment,  by  the  help  of  the  illustration  used,  find  an  entrance  into  the 
mind,  yet  the  words  must  thus  often  have  fixed  themselves  in  their 
memories  and  remained  by  them.|  And  here  the  comparison  of  the 
seed  is  appropriate,  of  which  the  shell  should  guard  the  life  of  the  inner 
germ,  till  that  should  be  ready  to  unfold  itself — till  there  should  be  a 
soil  prepared  for  it,  in  which  it  could  take  root  and  find  nourishment 
suitable  to  its  needs.  His  words  laid  up  in  the  memory  were  to  many 
that  heard  him  like  the  money  of  another  country,  unavailable  it  might 
be  for  present  use, — of  which  they  knew  not  the  value,  and  only  dimly 
knew  that  it  had  a  value,  but  which  yet  was  ready  in  their  hand,  when 
they  reached  that  land  and  were  naturalized  in  it.  When  the  Spirit 
came  and  brought  all  things  to  their  remembrance,  then  he  filled  all  the 
outlines  of  truth  which  they  before  possessed  with  its  substance,  quickened 
all  its  forms  with  the  power  and  spirit  of  life.  Not  perhaps  at  once,  but 
gradually,  the  meanings  of  what  they  had  heard  unfolded  themselves  to 
them.  Small  to  the  small,  they  grew  with  their  growth.  And  thus  must 
it  ever  be  with  all  true  knowledge,  which  is  not  the  communication  of 
information,  the  transference  of  a  dead  sum  or  capital  of  facts  or  theories 
from  one  mind  to  another,  but  the  opening  of  living  fountains  within  the 
heart,  the  scattering  of  sparks  which  shall  kindle  where  they  fall,  the 
planting  seeds  of  truth,  which  shall  take  root  in  the  new  soil  where  they 
are  cast,  and  striking  their  roots  downward,  and  sending  their  branches 
upward,  shall  grow  up  into  goodly  trees. 

Nor  is  it  unworthy  of  remark,  when  we  are  estimating  the  extent  of 
the  parabolic  element  in  Scripture,  how  much  besides  the  spoken,  there 

*  Thus  Jerome  {Comm.  in  Matt.,  in  loc.)  describes  the  purpose  of  the  parable : 
Ut  quod  per  simplex  prseceptum  teneri  ab  auditoribus  non  potest,  per  similitudi- 
nem  exemplaque  teneatur. 

f  It  was  no  doubt  from  a  deep  feeling  of  this  that  the  Jewish  Cabbalists 
affirmed,  Lumen  supernum  mmquam  descendit  sine  indiimento ;  with  which  agrees 
the  saying  of  the  pseudo-Dionysius,  so  often  quoted  by  the  schoolmen,  Impossibile 
est  nobis  aliter  lucere  divinum  radium  nisi  varietate  sacrorum  velaminum  circum- 
velatum. 

X  Bernard :  An  non  expedit  tenere  vel  involutum,  quod  nudum  non  capis  1 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  29 

is  there  of  acted,  parable.  In  addition  to  those  which,  by  a  more  especial 
right,  we  separate  off,  and  call  by  the  name,  every  type  is  a  real  parable. 
The  whole  Levitical  constitution,  with  its  outer  court,  its  holy,  its  holiest 
of  all,  its  high  priest,  its  sacrifices,  and  all  its  ordinances,  is  such,  and  is 
declared  to  be  such  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (ix.  9).  The  wander- 
ings of  the  children  of  Israel  have  ever  been  regarded  as  a  parable  of  the 
spiritual  life.  In  like  manner  we  have  parabolic  persons,  who  are  to 
teach  us  not  merely  by  what  simply  in  their  own  characters  they  did, 
but  as  they  represented  One  higher  and  greater ;  men  whose  actions 
and  whose  sufferings  obtain  a  new  significance,  inasmu«ch  as  they  were  in 
these  drawing  lines  quite  unconsciously  themselves,  wnich  another  should 
hereafter  fill  up ;  as  Abraham  when  he  cast  out  the  bondwoman  and  her 
son  (Gal.  iv.  30),  Jonah  in  the  whale's  belly,  David  in  his  hour  of  peril 
or  of  agony  (Ps.  xxii.).  And  in  a  narrower  circle,  without  touching  on 
the  central  fact  and  Person  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  how  often  has  he 
chosen  that  his  servants  should  teach  by  an  acted  parable  rather  than  by 
any  other  means,  and  this  because  there  was  no  other  that  would  make  so 
deep  and  so  lasting  an  impression?  Thus  Jeremiah  is  to  break  in  pieces 
a  potter's  vcs.sel,  that  he  may  foretell  the  complete  destruction  of  his 
people  (xix.  1-11);  he  wears  a  yoke  that  he  may  be  himself  a  prophecy 
and  a  parable  of  their  approaching  bondage  (xxvii.  2;  xxviii.  10);  he 
redeems  a  field  in  pledge  of  a  redemption  that  shall  yet  be  of  all  the 
land  (xxxii.  6-15).  It  will  at  once  be  seen  that  these  examples  might 
be  infinitely  multiplied.  And  as  God  will  have  them  by  these  signs  to 
teach  others,  he  continually  teaches  them  also  by  the  same  It  is  not  his 
word  only  that  comes  to  his  prophets,  but  the  great  truths  of  his  kingdom 
pass  before  their  eyes  incorporated  in  symbols,  addressing  themselves 
first  to  the  spiritual  eye,  and  only  through  that  to  the  spiritual  ear. 
They  are  indeed  and  eminently  Seeis.  Ezekiel  and  Zechariah  will  at 
once  suggest  themselves,  as  those  of  whom,  more  than,  perhaps,  any 
others,  this  was  true.  And  in  the  New  Testament  we  have  a  great 
example  of  tlie  same  teaching  in  St.  Peter's  vision  (Acts  x.  9-16),  and 
throughout  all  the  visions  of  the  Apocalypse.  Nay,  we  might  venture 
to  affirm  that  so  it  was  with  the  highest  and  greatest  truth  of  all,  that 
which  includes  all  others — the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  flesh.  This, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  a  making  intelligible  of  the  otherwise  unintelligible ; 
a  making  visible  the  invisible ;  a  teaching  not  by  doctrine,  but  by  the 
embodied  doctrine  of  a  divine  life,  was  the  highest  and  most  glorious  of 
all  parables.* 

*  See  a  few  words  on  this  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  c.  5.  and  in  Ci.km.  Alex. 
{Strmn.,  1.  0,  Potter's  Ed.,  p.  80.3),  he  begins,  Uapa^oKiKh^  yap  &  x^P^^^V  i^apx«* 
Tuv  ■ypa<p(iv  •   Si6ti  koI  6  Kvpios,  ovk  S>u  KOcrfJUKSs  (Is  avbpuirovs  fjA^eu. 


30  ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES. 

With  regard  to  the  record  which  we  have  of  the  Lord's  parables, 
they  are  found,  as  is  well  known,  only  in  the  three  first  Gospels :  that 
by  St.  John  containing  allegories,  as  of  the  Good  Shepherd  (x.  1),  the 
True  Vine  (xv.  1),  but  no  parables  strictly  so  called.  Of  the  other 
three,  that  of  Si.,MattJiew  was  originally  written  for  Jewish  readers, 
I  and  mainly  for  the  Jews  of  Palestine  ;  its  leadijig  purpose  being  to  show 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  promised  Messiah,  the  expected  King  of 
the  Jews — the  Son  of  David — the  Son  of  Abraham  ; — that  in  him  the 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  found  their  fulfilment.  The  theocratic 
spirit  of  his  Gospel  does  not  fail  to  appear  in  the  parables  which  he  has 
recorded  ;  they  are  concerning  the  kingdom, — being  commonly  the  de- 
claration of  things  whereunto  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  likened," — a 
form  which  never  once  finds  place  in  St.  Luke.  The  same  theocratic 
purpose  displays  itself  in  the  form  in  which  the  Marriage  of  the  King's 
Son  appears  in  his  Gospel,  compared  with  the  parallel  narration  in 
Luke ;  in  the  last,  it  is  only  a  man  who  makes  a  great  supper, — while, 
in  Matthew,  it  is  a  king,  and  the  supper  a  marriage-supper,  and  that  for 
his  son. 

The  main  purpose  which  St.  Luke  had  before  him  in  writing  his 
Gflspel  was  to  show,  not  that  Jesus  was  the  King  of  the  Jews,  but  the 
Saviour  of  the  world ;  and  therefore  he  traces  our  Lord's  descent,  not 
merely  from  David,  the  great  type  of  the  theocratic  king,  nor  from 
Abraham,  the  head  of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  from  Adam,  the  father  of 
mankind.  He,  the  chosen  companion  of  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 
wrote  his  Gospel  originally  for  Gentile  readers,  so  that  while  St.  Mat- 
thew only  records  the  sending  out  of  the  twelve  apostles,  corresponding 
to  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  he  relates  the  mission  of  the  seventy,  an- 
swering to  the  (supposed)  seventy  nations  into  which  the  world  at  Babel 
was  divided.  He,  as  writing  for  heathens  who  had  so  widely  departed 
from  God.  has  been  most  careful  to  record  the  Lord's  declarations  con- 
cerning the  free  mercy  of  God — his  declarations  that  there  is  no  depar- 
ture from  God  so  wide  as  to  preclude  a  return.  The  leading  idea  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  seems  to  have  guided  him  in  the  parables  which  he 
records.  In  this  view,  the  three  at  chapter  xv.  are  especially  character- 
istic of  his  aim.  and  more  particularly  the  last,  that  of  the  Prodigal  Son, 
and  not  less  so  that  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  if,  as  Augustine,  Theophylact, 
and  some  later  commentators  have  suggested,  we  may  take  Dives  to  sig- 
nify the  Jews,  richly  abounding  with  all  blessings  of  the  knowledge  of 
God,  and  glorifying  themselves  in  those  blessings,  while  Lazarus,  or  the 
Gentile,  lay  despised  at  their  door,  a  heap  of  neglected  and  putrefying 
sores.  Again,  the  fact  that  it  was  a  Samaritan  who  showed  kindness  to 
the  poor  wounded  man  (Luke  x.  30),  would  seem  also  to  have  been  re- 


ON  TEACHING  BY  PARABLES.  31 

corded  not  without  an  especial  aim,  to  be  traced  up  to  the  eame  leading 
idea  of  his  Gospel. 

St.  Mark  has  but  one  Parable  which  is  peculiar  to  himself,  that  of 
the   Seed  growing  by  itself  (iv.  26),  which   is   nearly  related  in   sub-  ^ 
stance  to  that  of  the  Mustard  Seed  in  Matthew,  the  place  of  which  it 
appears  to  occupy.     Tliere  is  not,  I  believe,  any  thing  so  peculiar  in  his 
record  of  the  parables  as  to  call  for  especial  notice. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ON  THE  INTERPRETATION"  OF  PARABLES. 

The  parables,  fair  in  their  outward  form,  are  yet  fairer  within — 
apples  of  gold  in  network  of  silver :  each  one  of  them  like  a  casket, 
itself  of  exquisite  workmanship,  but  in  which  jewels  yet  richer  than 
itself  are  laid  up ;  or  as  fruit,  which,  however  lovely  to  look  upon,  is  yet 
more  delectable  still  in  its  inner  sweetness.*  To  find  then  the  golden 
key  for  this  casket,  at  the  touch  of  which  it  shall  reveal  its  treasures ; 
to  open  this  fruit,  so  that  nothing  of  its  hidden  kernel  shall  be  missed  or 
lost,  has  naturally  been  regarded  ever  as  a  matter  of  high  concern. f 
And  in  this,  the  interpretation  of  the  parable,  a  subject  to  which  we  have 
now  arrived,  there  is  one  question  which  presents  itself  anew  at  every 
step  ;  namely  this,  how  much  of  them  is  significant?  and  on  this  sub- 
ject there  have  been  among  interpreters  the  most  opposite  theories. 
Some  have  gone  a  great  way  in  saying, — This  is  merely  drapery  and 
ornament,  and  not  the  vehicle  of  essential  truth ;  this  was  introduced 
either  as  useful  to  given  liveliness  and  a  general  air  of  verisimilitude  to 
the  narrative,  or  as  actually  necessary  to  make  the  story,  which  is  the 
substratum  of  the  truth,  a  consistent  whole,  since  without  this  consist- 
ency the  hearer  would  be  both  perplexed  and  ofi"ended, — to  hold  together 
and  connect  the  difi"erent  parts,  just  as  in  the  most  splendid  house  there 
must  be  passages,  not  for  their  own  sake,  but  to  lead  from  one  room  to 
another.  I    Chrysostom  continually  warns  against  pressing  too  anxiously 

*  Bernard :  Superficies  ipsa,  tanquara  h.  foris  considerata,  decora  est  valde  :  et 
si  quis  fregerit  nucem,  intus  inveniet  quod  jucundius  sit,  et  mult6  amplius  delec- 
tabile. 

f  Jerome  (In  Ecclcs.  xii.) :  Parabolje  aliud  in  medulla,  habent,  aliud  in  super- 
ficie  polliccntur  et  quasi  in  terra,  aurum,  in  nuce  nucleus,  in  hirsutis  castanearum 
operculis  absconditus  fructus  inquiritur,  ita  in  eis  divinus  sensus  altius  perscru- 
tandus. 

X  Tertullian  {Dc  Pudicitia,  c.  9):  Quare  centum  eves'?  et  quid  utique  decern 
drachmae  1  et  quse  illte  scopje  %  Nccesse  erat  qui  unius  peccatoris  salutem  gratia- 
simam  Deo  volebat  exprimere,  aliquam  numeri  quantitatem  nomiuaret,  dc  quo 
imum  quidom  perisse  describeret :  necesse  erat  ut  habitus  requLrentis  drachmam 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  33 

all  the  circumstances  of  a  parable,  and  often  cuts  his  own  interpretation 
somewhat  short  in  language  like  this. — '  Be  not  curious  about  the 
rest  :"*  and  in  like  manner,  the  interpreters  that  habitually  follow  him, 
Theophylactf  and  others,  though  not  always  faithful  to  their  own  prin- 
ciples. So  also  Origen,  who  illustrates  his  meaning  by  a  comparison  of 
great  beauty.  He  says,  "  For  as  the  likenesses  which  arc  given  in  pic- 
tures and  statues  are  not  perfect  resemblances  of  those  things  for  whose 
sake  they  are  made — but  for  instance  the  image  which  is  painted  in  wax 
on  a  plain  surface  of  wood,  contains  a  resemblance  of  the  superficies 
and  colors,  but  does  not  also  preserve  the  depressions  and  prominences, 
but  only  a  representation  of  them — while  a  statue,  again,  seeks  to  pre- 
serve the  likeness  which  consists  in  prominences  and  depressions,  but 
not  as  well  that  which  is  in  colors — but  should  the  statue  be  of  wax,  it 
seeks  to  retain  both,  I  mean  the  colors,  and  also  the  depressions  and 
prominences,  but  is  not  an  image  of  those  things  which  are  within — in 
the  same  manner,  of  the  parables  which  are  contained  in  the  Gospels  so 
account,  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  when  it  is  likened  to  any  thing,  is 
not  likened  to  it  according  to  a/l  the  things  which  are  contained  in  that 
with  which  the  comparison  is  instituted,  but  according  to  certain  quali- 
ties which  the  matter  in  hand  requires."^  Exactly  thus  in  modern 
times  it  has  been  said  that  the  parable  and  its  interpretation  are  not 
to  be  contemplated  as  two  planes,  touching  one  another  at  every  point, 
but  oftentimes  rather  as  a  plane  and  a  globe,  which,  though  brought  into 
contact,  yet  touch  one  another  only  in  one. 

On  the  other  hand,  Augustine,  though  sometimes  laying  down  the 
same  principle,  frequently  extends  the  interpretation  through  all  the 
branches  and  minutest  fibres   of  the  narrative,^   and  Origen  not  less,. 

in  dome,  tam  scoparum  qua.m  lucernffi  admiiiiculo  accommodaretur.  Ilujusmodi 
enim  curiositates  et  suspecta  faciunt  quasdam,  et  coactarum  expositionum  subtili- 
tate  plerumque  dcducunt  h.  veritate.  Sunt  autem  quae  et  simpliciter  posita  sunt 
ad  strucndam  et  disponendara  et  texendara  parabolara,  ut  illuc  perducantut,  cui 
exemplum  jirocuratur.  Brower  (De  Par.  J.  C,  p.  175):  Talia  omitti  non  potu- 
erunt,  quoniam  eorum  tanti!ini  ope  res  ad  cventum  facilfe  perduci  posset,  cum  alio- 
quin  saltus  ficret  aut  hiatvi.s  in  narrationc,  qui  rei  narrataj  similitudini  omnino 
noceret.  vel  (|uia  corum  neglectus  auditores  fortasse  ad  inanes  quaestioncs  et  dubi- 
tationes  invitare  jjosset. 

*  Tci/Wa  U7J  ireptepyd^ov. 

t  Tlieojiliylact  (In.  Luc.  xvi.):  ITStro  wapa0o\^  irAaylais  koI  e'lKoviKus  StjXo?  irpay- 
fiarwv  Tivuv  (pvaiv,  oh  Kara  iravra  ioiKvla  to'is  irpayfjiafTiv  eKeivois,  5i'  &  irap(\-i](p^r).  5t' 
c  ovSf  XPV  "iravTa  to,  ^ifpt]  twv  trapa^oXwv  \eirrws  TToKvitpayfiovevfcrbai,  aW'  '6crov  eoiKS 
T(p  -KpoKfiixtvu)  KapTTovufi/ovs-  TO.  \oiiTa  iay,  ws  ry  irapafioXr}  ffvvv(pi<Trd/xeva,  /co2  firiSky 
irpbs  rb  irpoKftfjifvov  crvix^aWSfifva. 

:j:  Comm.  in  Matlh.  xiii.  47. 

^  See  a  wonderful  instance  of  the  extent  to  which  this  may  be  done  in  an  expo- 
sition of  the  Prodigal  Son,  given  in  his  QucEst.  Evang.,  1.  2.  qu.  33. 
3 


34  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION"  OF  PARABLES. 

despite  the  passage  wliicli  I  have  just  quoted.  And  in  modern  times, 
the  followers  of  Cocceius  have  been  particularly  earnest  in  affirming 
all  parts  of  a  parable  to  be  significant.*  Perhaps,  I  might  mar  the  plea- 
sure of  some  readers  in  the  following  noble  passage,  by  saying  from 
whence  it  was  drawn :  but  the  writer  is  describing  the  long  and  labo- 
rious care  which  he  took  to  master  the  literal  meaning  of  every  word  in 
the  parables,  being  confident  of  the  riches  of  inward  truth  which  every 
one  of  those  words  contained ;  he  goes  on  to  say, — "  Of  my  feelings  and 
progress  in  studying  the  parables  of  our  Lord,  I  have  found  no  simili- 
tude worthy  to  convey  the  impression,  save  that  of  sailing  through  be- 
tween the  Pillars  of  Hercules  into  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  where  you 
have  to  pass  between  armed  rocks,  in  a  strait,  and  under  a  current — all 
requiring  careful  and  skilful  seamanship — but  being  past,  opening  into 
such  a  large,  expansive,  and  serene  ocean  of  truth,  so  engirdled  round 
with  rich  and  fertile  lands,  so  inlaid  with  beautiful  and  verdant  islands, 
and  full  of  rich  colonies  and  populous  cities,  that  unspeakable  is  the 
delight  and  the  reward  it  yieldeth  to  the  voyager." 

On  a  review  of  the  whole  controversy  it  may  safely  be  said,  that  the 
advocates  of  the  first-mentioned  scheme  of  interpretation  have  been  too 
easily  satisfied  with  their  favorite  saying — "  Every  comparison  must 
halt  somewhere  ;"t — since  one  may  well  demand,  "  Where  is  the  neces- 
sity?" There  is  no  force  in  the  reply,  that  unless  it  did  so,  it  would 
not  be  an  illustration  of  the  thing,  but  the  thing  itself ;  since  two  lines 
do  not  become  one,  nor  cease  to  be  two,  because  they  run  parallel 
through  their  whole  course ;  it  needs  not  that  they  somewhere  cease  to 
be  parallel,  to  prevent  them  from  being  one  and  the  same.|  It  may 
well  be  considered,  too,  whether  these  interpreters,  in  their  fear  of  capri- 
cious allegories,  have  not  run  into  an  opposite  extreme.  It  is  quite  true, 
to  use  an  illustration  which  they  sometimes  employ,  that  a  knife  is  not  all 
edge,  nor  a  harp  all  strings ;  that  much  in  the  knife,  which  does  not 
cut,  is  yet  of  prime  necessity,  as  the  handle, — much,  in  the  musical  in- 
strument, which  is  not  intended  to  give  sound,  must  yet  not  be  wanting: 
or  to  use  another  comparison,  that  many  circumstances  "  in  Christ's 
parables  are  like  the  feathers  which  wing  our  arrows,  which,  though 
they  pierce  not  like  the  head,  but  seem  slight  things  and  of  a  different 
matter  from  the  rest,  are  yet  requisite  to  make  the  shaft  to  pierce,  and 
do  both  convey  it  to  and  penetrate -the  mark."^     It  is  true,  also,  that 

*  Teelman  (Comm.  in  Luc.  xvi.,  p.  34-52)  defends  this  principle  at  length  and 
with  much  ability. 

f  Onine  simile  claudicat. 

^  Theophylact  (in  Suickr's  TAct.,  s.  v.  irapa$o\-{]) :  'H  7ropa)3oX^,  iav  Sta  wivruy 
crii^rirai,  ovk  tcrri  irapa^oKT),  a\\'  avrh  tKeivo,  5i'  h  r]  ■KapafioXi). 

%  Boyle's  Style  of  the  Holy  Scriptures;  Fifth  Objection.     There  is  a  remarkable 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  35 

in  the  other  scheme  of  interpretation,  there  is  the  danger  lest  a  delight 
in  the  exercise  of  ingenuity  on  the  part  of  the  interpreter,  and  admira- 
tion of  the  ingenuity  so  exercised  on  the  side  of  the  readers  and  hearers, 
may  cause  it  to  be  forgotten  that  the  sauctification  of  the  heart  through 
the  truth  is  the  main  purpose  of  all  Scripture : — even  as  there  will  pre- 
sently be  occasion  to  observe  how  heretics,  through  this  pressing  of  all 
parts  of  a  parable  to  the  uttermost,  have  been  wont  to  extort  from  it 
almost  any  meaning  that  they  pleased. 

Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  shallow  spirit  ever  ready  to  empty 
Scripture  of  the  depth  of  its  meaning,  to  exclaim — "  This  means  nothing, 
this  circumstance  is  not  to  be  pressed  ;"  and  satisfying  ourselves  with 
sayings  like  these,  we  may  fail  to  draw  out  from  the  word  of  God  all 
the  riches  of  meaning  that  are  contained  in  it  for  us, — we  may  fail  to 
observe  and  to  admire  the  wisdom  with  which  the  type  was  constructed 
to  correspond  with  its  antitype.  For  as  a  work  of  human  art,  a  statue, 
for  instance,  is  the  more  perfect  in  the  measure  that  the  life,  the  idea 
that  was  in  the  sculptor's  mind,  breathes  out  of  and  looks  through  every 
feature  and  limb,  so  much  the  greater  being  the  triumph  of  spirit, 
penetrating  through  and  glorifying  the  matter  which  it  has  assumed ; 
so  the  more  translucent  a  parable  is  in  all  parts  with  the  divine  truth 
which  it  embodies,  the  more  the  garment  with  which  it  is  arrayed,  is  a 
garment  of  light,  pierced  through,  as  was  once  the  raiment  of  Christ, 
with  the  brightness  within, — illuminating  it  in  all  its  recesses  and 
corners,  and  leaving  no  dark  place  in  it, — by  so  much  the  more  beautiful 
and  perfect  it  must  be  esteemed.  It  may  be  further  answered,  that  of 
those  who  start  with  the  principle  that  so  much  is  to  be  set  aside  as 

passage  in  Augustine  {Dc  Civ.  Dei,  1.  16,  c.  2).  where  he  carries  out  this  view  still 
further ;  Non  .san6  omnia  quae  gesta  narrantur,  aliquid  etiam  significare  putanda 
sunt :  sed  i)roi)ter  ilia  quae  aliquid  significant,  etiam  ilia  quas  nihil  significant  attex- 
untur.  Solo  enim  vomere  terra  proscinditur,  sed  ut  hoc  fieri  possit.  etiam  caetara 
aratri  membra  sunt  necessaria.  Et  soli  nervi  in  citharis  atque  hujusmodi  vasis 
musicis  aptantur  ad  cantum,  sed  ut  aptari  possint,  insunt  et  csetcra  in  compaginibug 
organorum.  quje  non  percutiuntur  a  cancntibus,  sed  ea  quae  percussa  resonant  his 
connectuntur.  Ita  in  prophetic^  historia  dicuntur  et  aliqua,  quae  nihil  significant, 
sed  quibus  adhaereant  quaa  significant,  et  quomodo  religentur.  Cf.  Con.  Faust.  1.  22. 
c.  94.  A  Romish  expositor,  Salmeron,  has  a  comparison  something  similar :  Cer- 
ium est  gladium  non  omni  ex  parte  scindere,  sed  una  tantum  :  nee  enim  per  manu- 
brium secat,  neque  per  partem  obtusam  oppositam  aciei,  neque  per  cuspidera,  sed 
tantum  per  acicm  secat.  Et  tamen  nemo  sanae  mentis  dixerit  aut  manubrium  aut 
cuspidem  aut  partem  obtusam  oppositam  aciei,  necessaria  non  esse  ad  scindcndum: 
nam  ct.si  per  se  ipsa  non  scindant,  serviunt  tamen  ut  pars  quae  acuta  est,  et  ad 
secandum  nata.  scindere  fortiils  et  commodiils  valeat.  Ita  in  parabolis  multa  affer- 
untur.  (\\\;v.  etsi  per  se  ipsa  sensum  spiritalem  non  efBciant.  conducunt  tamen  ut 
parabola  per  illam  partem  scindat  et  secet,  ad  quod  praestandum  ab  auctore  propo- 
sita  fuerat. 


36  ON  THE  IXT^PRETATION  OF  PARABLES. 

non-essential,  scarcely  are  to  be  found  any  two  agreed,  when  it  comes  to 
the  application  of  their  principle,  concerning  what  actually  is  to  be  set 
aside  :  what  one  rejects,  another  retains,  and  the  contrary.  Moreover,  it 
is  alwavs  observable  that  the  more  this  system  is  carried  out.  the  more 
the  peculiar  beauty  of  the  parable  disappears,  and  the  interest  in  it  is 
weakened.  For  example,  when  Calvin  will  not  allow  the  oU  in  the 
vessels  (Matt,  xxv.)  to  mean  any  thing,  and  when  Storr.*  who,  almost 
more  than  any  other,  would  leave  the  parables  bare  trunks,  stripped  of 
all  their  foliage  and  branches,  of  all  that  made  for  beauty  and  ornament. 
denies  that  the  Prodigal  leaving  his  father's  house  has  any  direct  refer- 
ence to  man's  departure  from  the  presence  of  his  heavenly  Father,  it  is 
at  once  evident  of  how  much,  not  merely  of  pleasure,  but  of  instruction, 
they  would  deprive  us.  It  may  be  remarked  too.  in  opposition  to  the 
interpretation  of  the  parables  merely  in  the  gross,  that  when  our  Lord 
himself  interpreted  the  two  first  which  he  delivered,  those  of  the  Sower, 
and  of  the  Tares,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  he  intended  to  furnish 
us  with  a  key  for  the  interpretation  of  all.  These  explanations  therefore 
are  most  important,  not  merely  for  their  own  sakes.  but  as  laying  down  the 
principles  and  canons  of  interpretation  to  be  applied  throughout.  Now 
in  these  the  moral  application  descends  to  some  of  the  minutest  details 
of  the  narrative :  thus,  the  birds  which  snatch  away  the  seed  sown,  are 
explained  as  Satan  who  takes  the  good  word  out  of  the  heart  (Matt. 
xiii.  19).  the  thorns  correspond  to  the  cares  and  pleasures  of  life  (Matt, 
xiii.  •2-2).  and  much  more  of  the  same  kind.  ••  It  must  be  allowed."  says 
Tholuck.T  ••  that  a  similitude  is  perfect  in  proportion  as  it  is  on  all  sides 
rich  in  applications  ::}:  and  hence,  in  treating  the  parables  of  Christ,  the 
expositor  must  proceed  on  the  presumption  that  there  is  import  in  every 
single  point,  and  only  desist  from  seeking  it,  when  either  it  does  not 
result  without  forcing.'  or  when  we  can  clearly  show  that  this  or  that 
circumstance  was  merely  added  for  the  sake  of  giving  intuitiveness  to 

*  De  ParaboUs  Christi.  in  his  Opusc.  Acad.,  v.  1,  p.  89. 

t  Auslffung  der  Bergpredigt.  p.  201.  "With  this  agrees  what  Bishop  Lowth 
says.  De  Sac.  PoSs.  H(b..  Pral.  10. 

X  Vitringa :  Placent  mihi  qui  ex  parabolis  Christi  Domini  plus  veritatis  eliciunt, 
qn&m  generale  quoddam  praeceptum  ethicum.  per  parabolam  illustratum  et  audi- 
torum  animis  fortius  infixum.  Xon  quod  audaciter  pronunoiare  sustineam,  ejus- 
modi  institutionis  aut  persuasionis  genus,  si  Domino  nostro  placuissot  iUud  adhi- 
bere.  cum  summa.  ejus  sapientia  non  potnisse  consistere.  Contendo  tamen  de 
summa  sapientia  qualis  iUa  fuit  Filii  Dei.  nos  merito  plus  pnesumere.  ac  propterea, 
si  parabolae  Christi  Domini  ita  explicari  queant,  ut  singulae  earum  partes  com- 
mode et  absque  violentis  contorsionibus  transferantur  ad  ceconomiam  Ecclesiae. 
illud  ego  explicationis  genus  tanquam  optumum  amplectendum  et  caeteris  praefer- 
endum  existimo.  Qnanto  enim  plus  solidae  veritatis  ex  Yerbo  Dei  eruerimus  si 
nihil  obstet.  tant6  ii:agis  divinam  commendabimus  sapientiam. 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  37 

the  narrative.  We  should  not  assume  any  thing  to  be  non-essential, 
except  when  by  holding  it  fast  as  essential  the  unity  of  the  whole  is 
marred  and  troubled."* 

It  will  much  help  us  in  this  matter  of  determining  what  is  essential 
and  what  not,  if,  before  we  attempt  to  explain  the  particular  parts,  we 
obtain  fast  hold  of  the  central  truth  which  the  parable  would  set  forth, 
and  distinguish  it  in  the  mind  as  sharply  and  accurately  as  we  can  from 
all  cognate  truths  which  border  upon  it ;  for  only  seen  from  that  middle 
point  will  the  different  parts  appear  in  their  true  light.  '•  One  may 
compare,"  says  a  late  writer  on  the  parables,!  "  the  entire  parable  with 
a  circle,  of  which  the  middle  point  is  the  spiritual  truth  or  doctrine,  and 
of  which  the  radii  are  the  several  circumstances  of  the  narration ;  so 
long  as  one  has  not  placed  oneself  in  the  centre,  neither  the  circle  itself 
appears  in  its  perfect  shape,  nor  will  the  beautiful  unity  with  which  the 
radii  converge  to  a  single  point  be  perceived,  but  this  is  all  observed  so 
soon  as  the  eye  looks  forth  from  the  centre.  Even  so  in  the  parable,  if 
we  have  recognized  its  middle  point,  its  main  doctrine,  in  full  light,  then 
will  the  proportion  and  right  signification  of  all  particular  circumstances 
be  clear  unto  us,  and  we  shall  lay  stress  upon  them  only  so  far  as  the 
main  truth  is  thereby  more  vividly  set  forth." 

There  is  another  rule  which  it  is  important  to  observe,  which  at  the 
same  time  is  so  simple  and  obvious,  that  were  it  not  very  frequently 
neglected,  it  would  hardly  be  thought  needful  to  be  mentioned,  but 
might  be  left  to  the  common  sense  of  every  interpreter.  It  is  this,  that 
as  in  the  explanation  of  the  fable,  the  introduction  (npofiv'^iov)  and 
application  [fTrifj.v'iiov)  claim  to  be  most  carefully  attended  to,  so  here 
what  some  have  entitled  the  pro-parabola  and  epi-parabola,  though  the 


*  Out  of  this  feeling  the  Jewish  doctors  distinguished  lower  forms  of  revelation 
from  higher,  dreams  from  prophetic  communications  thus,  that  in  the  higher  all 
was  essential,  while  the  dream  ordinarily  contained  something  that  was  super- 
fluous; and  they  framed  this  axiom. —  As  there  is  no  corn  without  straw,  so 
neither  is  there  any  mere  dream  without  something  that  is  apyiv.  void  of  reality 
and  insignificant."  They  would  instance  Joseph's  dream  (Gon.  xxxvii.  9) ;  the 
moon  could  not  there  have  been  well  lefi  out.  when  all  the  heavenly  host  did  obe'- 
sance  to  him  ;  yet  this  circumstance  was  thus  apy6i',  for  his  mother,  who  thereby 
was  signified,  was  even  then  dead,  and  so  incapable  of  rendering  hereafter  the 
homage  to  him  which  the  others  at  last  did.  (See  John  S.mith's  Discourses, 
p.  178.) 

t  Lisco:  Die  Parabeln  Jcsu,  p.  22;  a  sound  and  useful  work.  It  has  been 
translated  into  English — h^nc.  may  be  guessed  by  a  single  specimen.  Having  occa- 
sion to  characterize  Vitringa's  Erhlitruni;  der  Paruhokn.  Lisco  observes  of  it  thus: 
Ein  uber  IfKJO  Seiten  starkes  Werk  breiter  Si>rache  (a  book  more  tlian  a  thou.sand 
pages  thick,  very  diffuse),  which  however  reai>pears  in  the  translation:  "A  work 
of  great  power  in  many  respects,  in  broad  dialect." 


38  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES. 

other  terms  would  have  done  sufficiently  well,  which  are  invariably  the 
finger-posts  pointing  to  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to  look  for  the 
meaning, — the  key  to  the  whole  matter.  These  deserve  the  most 
attentive  heed,  as  their  neglect  often  betrays  into  the  most  untenable 
explanations  ;  for  instance,  how  many  of  the  interpretations  which  have 
been  elaborately  worked  out  of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard,  could 
never  have  been  so  much  as  once  proposed,  if  heed  had  been  paid  to  the 
context,  or  the  necessity  been  acknowledged  of  bringing  the  interpreta- 
tion into  harmony  with  the  saying,  which  introduces  and  winds  up  the 
parable.  These  helps  to  interpretation,  though  rarely  or  never  lack- 
ing,* are  yet  given  in  no  fixed  or  formal  manner ;  sometimes  they  are 
supplied  by  the  Lord  himself  (Matt.  xxii.  14;  xxv.  13);  sometimes  by 
the  inspired  narrators  of  his  words  (Luke  xv.  1,  2;  xviii.  1);  sometimes, 
as  the  prologue,  they  precede  the  parable  (Luke  xviii.  9;  xix.  11); 
sometimes,  as  the  epilogue,  they  follow  (Matt.  xxv.  13;  Luke  xvi.  9). 
Occasionally  a  parable  is  furnished  with  these  helps  to  its  right  under- 
standing and  application  both  at  its  opening  and  its  close ;  as  is  that  of 
the  Unmerciful  Servant  (Matt,  xviii.  23),  which  is  suggested  by  the 
question  which  Peter  asks  (ver.  2 1 ),  and  wound  up  by  the  application 
which  the  Lord  himself  makes  (ver.  35).  So  again  the  Parable,  at 
Matt.  XX.  1-15,  begins  and  finishes  with  the  same  saying,  and  Luke  xii. 
16-20  is  supplied  with  the  same  amount  of  help  for  its  right  under- 
standing.! 

Again  we  may  observe  that  an  interpretation,  besides  being  thus  in 
accordance  with  its  context,  must  be  so  without  any  very  violent  means 
being  applied  to  bring  it  into  such  agreement ;  even  as,  generally  the 
interpretation  must  be  easy — if  not  always  easy  to  be  discovered,  yet 
being  discovered,  eas}^.  For  it  is  here  as  with  the  laws  of  nature  ;  the 
proleptic  mind  of  genius  may  be  needful  to  discover  the  law,  but  being 
discovered,  it  throws  back  light  on  itself,  and  commends  itself  unto  all. 
And  there  is  this  other  point  of  similarity  also ;  it  is  the  proof  of  the 
law  that  it  explains   all   the   phenomena   and   not  merely  some — tha,t 

*  Tertullian  {De  Rcsur.  Cam.,  c.  33):  Nullum  parabolam  non  aut  ab  ipso  in- 
venias  ertisseratam,  ut  de  Semioatore  in  verbi  administratione  :  aut  h  commenta- 
tore  Evangelii  prEeluminatam,  ut  judicis  superbi  et  vidua3  instantis  ad  perseveran- 
tiam  orationes ;  aut  ultro  conjectaiidam,  ut  arboris  fici,  dilatse  in  spem,  ad  instar 
Judaicse  infructuositatis. 

t  Salnieron  {Scrm.  in  Evang.  Par.,  p.  19)  has  a  threefold  division  of  the  para- 
ble, which  is  worth  noticing.  There  are  three  things,  he  says,  which,  in  proceed- 
ing to  interpret  it.  claim  our  attention ;  the  radix  or  root  out  of  which  it  grows, 
which  may  also  be  regarded  as  the  final  cause  or  scope  with  which  it  is  spoken, 
which  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  irpofjivbwv ;  next,  the  cortex  or  the  outward  sensu- 
ous arrny  in  which  it  clothes  itself;  and  then  the  medulla,  or  inward  core,  the 
spiritual  truth  which  it  enfolds. 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  39 

sooner  or  later  they  all  marshal  themselves  in  order  under  it :  so  it  is 
tolerable  evidence  that  we  have  found  the  right  interpretation  of  a  para- 
ble, if  it  leave  none  of  the  main  circumstances  unexplained.  A  false 
interpretation  will  inevitably  betray  itself,  since  it  will  "  invariably 
paralyze  and  render  nugatory  some  important  member  of  an  entire  ac- 
count.''  If  we  have  the  right  key  in  our  hand,  not  merely  some  of  the 
words,  but  all,  will  have  their  corresponding  parts,  and  moreover  the 
key  will  turn  without  grating  or  over-much  forcing ;  and  if  we  have 
the  right  interpretation,  it  will  scarcely  need  to  be  defended  and  made 
plausible  with  great  appliance  of  learning,  to  be  propped  up  by  remote 
allusions  to  Rabbinical  or  profane  literature,  by  illustrations  drawn  from 
the  recesses  of  antiquity.* 

Once  more — the  parables  may  not  be  made  first  sources  of  doctrine. 
Doctrines  otherwise  and  already  grounded  may  be  illustrated,  or  indeed 
further  confirmed  by  them ;  but  it  is  not  allowable  to  constitute  doc- 
trine first  by  their  aid.f  They  may  be  the  outer  ornamental  fringe,  but 
not  the  main  texture,  of  the  proof  For  from  the  literal  to  the  figura- 1 
tive,  from  the  clearer  to  the  more  obscure,  has  been  ever  recognized  as 
the  law  of  Scripture  interpretation.  This  rule,  however,  has  been  often ' 
forgotten,  and  controversialists,  looking  round  for  arguments  with  which 
to  sustain  some  weak  position,  one  for  which  they  can  find  no  other  sup- 
port in  Scripture,  often  invent  for  themselves  supports  in  these.  Thus 
Bellarmine  presses  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  and  the  circum- 
stance that  in  that  the  thieves  are  said  Jiist  to  have  stripped  the  traveller, 

*  That  which  is  required  in  a  satisfactory  solution,  is  well  stated  by  Teelman 
{Comm.  -hi  Luc,  16,  p.  23):  Explicatio  non  sit  hiulca,  non  aspera,  non  auribus  nee 
judicio  difficilis,  iion  ridicula;  sod  mollis  ot  verccunda,  leniter  manantis  lluvii  instar 
amccnitate  in  anres  auditorumquo  judicium  influeus,  appropriata,  proxima,  et  ab 
omni  longA  petit  ione  reraota. 

t  This  rule  finds  its  expression  in  the  recognized  axiom  :  Theologia  parabolica 
non  est  arguinentativa.  And  again  :  Ex  solo  sensu  littcrali  peti  possunt  ari,nimcnta 
efBcacia.  See  Gerhard's  Loc.  Theol.,  1.  2,  c.  13,  ()  202.  There  is  a  beautilul  pas- 
sage in  Ansf.lm's  Cur  Dens  Hinno,  1.  1.  c.  4,  on  the  futility  of  using  as  primary 
arguments  what  indeed  can  but  serve  as  graceful  confirmation  of  truths  already  on 
other  grounds  received  and  believed, — and  against  gainsayers  most  of  all.  The 
objector  is  made  to  reply  to  one  who  presses  him  with  the  wonderful  correspond- 
encies of  Scripture  :  Omnia  luec  pulcra  et  quasi  qiuedam  picture  suscipicnda  sunt, 
scd  si  non  sit  ali((uid  solidiun  super  quod  sedoant,  non  videntur  infidolibus  satis- 
facere  :  nam  qui  j)icturam  vult  I'acere,  aliquid  digit  solidum  super  quod  pingat,  ut 
niancat  quod  i)ingit.  Nemo  enim  pingit  in  aqu&  vel  in  afire;  quia  ibi  nulla  manent 
pictiiraj  vestigia.  Qua  propter  cCim  has  convenientias  quas  dicis,  infidelibus  quasi 
quasdam  [ticturas  rei  gost;e  obteiidimus.  quoniam  non  rem  gestam  scd  figmentura 
arbtrantiir  esse  quod  credimus  ;  quasi  su])er  nubem  jjingere  nos  existimant.  Mon- 
stranda  est  prius  veritatis  rationabilis  soliditas.  Delude,  ut  ipsum  quasi  corpus 
verilalis  plus  niteat,  istie  convenicntia),  quasi  picturie  corporis  sunt  cxponcndae. 


40  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES. 

and  ofteruards  to  have  inflicted  wounds  on  liim,  as  proving  certain 
views  of  tlie  Romish  Church  on  the  order  of  man's  fall,  the  succession 
in  which,  first  losing  heavenly  gifts,  the  robe  of  a  divine  righteousness, 
he  afterwards,  and  as  a  consequence,  endured  actual  hurts  in  his  soul.* 
And  in  the  same  way  Faustus  Socinus  argues  from  the  parable  of  the 
Unmerciful  Servant,  that  as  the  king  pardoned  his  servant  merely  on  his 
petition  (Matt,  xviii.  22),  and  not  on  account  of  any  satisfaction  made, 
or  any  mediator  intervening,  we  may  draw  from  this  the  conclusion, 
that  in  the  same  way,  and  without  requiring  sacrifice  or  intercessor, 
God  pardons  Ids  debtors  simply  on  the  ground  of  their  prayers,  f 

But  far  the  greatest  sinners  against  this  rule  were  the  Gnostics  and 
Maniclireans  in  old  time,  especially  the  former.  The  parables  were  far 
too  welcome  to  these,  who  could  find  no  color  for  their  scheme  in  the 
plain  declarations  of  Scripture,  for  them  to  allow  themselves  to  be  rob- 
bed of  the  help  which  they  hoped  to  find  in  this  quarter,  by  attending 
to  any  such  canon  as  this.  The  whole  scheme  of  the  Gnostics  was  one 
which,  however  it  may  have  been  a  result  of  the  Gospel,  inasmuch  as 
that  set  the  religious  speculation  of  the  world  vigorously  astir,  was  yet 
of  independent  growth ;  and  they  only  came  to  the  Scripture  to  find  a 
varnish,  an  outer  Christian  coloring,  for  a  system  essentially  antichris- 
tian ; — not  to  learn  its  language,  but  to  see  if  they  could  not  compel  it 
to  speak  theirs.  |  They  came  with  no  desire  to  draw  mit  of  Scripture 
its  meaning,  but  to  thrust  into  Scripture  their  own.^  When  they  fell 
thus  to  picking  and  choosing  from  it  what  was  best  adapted  to  their  ends, 

*  De  Graf.  Prim.  Horn. :  Neque  enim  sine  causS.  Dominus  in  parabola  ilia  prius 
dixit,  hominem  spoliatum,  posteriu.s  autem.  vulneratura  fuisse,  cum  tamen  contra 
accidere  soleat  in  veris  latrociniis  ;  nimirum  indicare  voluit,  in  hoc  spirituali  latro- 
cinio  ex  ipsa,  amissione  justitias  originalis  nata  esse  vulnera  nostrie  natxirae.  (See 
Gerhard's  Loc.  T/lcoL,  loc.  9,  c.  2.  ()  86.) 

t  Deyling,  Obss.  Sac,  v.  4,  c.  649.  Socinus  here  sins  against  another  rule  of 
Scripture  interpretation  as  of  common  sense,  which  is.  that  we  are  not  to  expect  in 
every  place  the  whole  circle  of  Christian  truth  to  be  fully  stated,  and  that  no  con- 
clusion may  be  drami  from  the  absence  of  a  doctrine  from  one  passage  which  is 
clearly  stated  in  others.  Jerome  {Adv.  Jovin.,  1.  2) :  Neque  enim  in  omnibus  locis 
docentur  omnia  ;  sed  iTnaquseque  similitudo  ad  id  refertur  cujus  est  similitudo. 

:j:  Jerome  :  Ad  voluntatera  suam  Scripturara  trahere  repugnantem. 

^  Irenteus.  1.  1,  c.  8:  Ut  flgmentum  illorum  non  sine  teste  esse  videatur.  All 
this  very  nearly  repeats  itself  in  Swedenborg,  in  whom,  indeed,  there  are  many 
resemblances  to  the  Gnostics  of  old,  especially  the  distinctive  one  of  a  division  of 
the  Church  into  spiritual  and  carnal  members.  One,  estimating  his  system  of 
Scripture  interpretation,  thus  speaks :  "  His  spiritual  sense  of  Scripture  is  one 
altogether  disconnected  from  the  literal  sense,  is  rather  a  sense  before  the  sense  ; 
not  a  sense  to  which  one  mounts  up  from  the  steps  of  that  which  is  below,  but  in 
which  one  must,  as  by  a  miracle,  be  planted,  for  it  is  altogether  independent  of, 
and  disconnected  from,  the  accidental  externum,  sitperaddihim  of  the  literal  sense." 


ON"  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  41 

the  parables  would  naturally  invite  them  almost  more  than  any  other 
portions  of  Scripture ;  for  it  was  plain  that  they  must  abandon  the  literal 
portions  of  Scripture ;  their  only  refuge  was  in  the  figurative,  in  those 
which  might  receive  more  interpretations  than  one ;  such  perhaps  they 
might  bend  to  their  purposes.  Accordingly  we  find  them  revelling  in 
these ;  with  no  joy  indeed  in  them,  on  account  of  their  simplicity  or 
practical  depth  or  ethical  beauty ;  for  they  seem  to  have  had  no  sense  or 
feeling  of  these ;  but  delighted  to  superinduce  upon  them  their  own  ca- 
pricious and  extravagant  fancies.  Irenaeus  is  continually  compelled  to 
vindicate  the  parables  against  them,  and  to  rescue  them  from  the  extreme 
abuse  to  which  they  submitted  them,  who  not  merely  warped  and  drew 
them  a  little  aside,  but  made  them  tell  wholly  a  different  tale  from  that 
which  they  were  intended  to  tell*  Against  them  he  lays  down  that 
canon,  namely,  that  the  parables  C£uinot  be  in  any  case  the  original  or  the 
exclusive  foundations  of  any  doctrine,  but  must  be  themselves  interpreted 
according  to  the  analogy  of  fiiith ;  since,  if  every  subtle  solution  of  one 
of  these  might  raise  itself  at  once  to  the  dignity  and  authority  of  a 
Christian  doctrine,  the  rule  of  faith  would  be  nowhere.  So  to  build 
were  to  build  not  on  the  rock,  but  on  the  sand.f 

Tertullian  has  the  same  conflict  to  maintain.  The  whole  scheme  of 
the  Gnostics  was  a  great  floating  cloud-palace,  the  figment  of  their  own 
brain,  and  having  no  counterpart  in  the  actual  world  of  realities.     They 

*  In  a  striking  passage  {Adv.  Hmr.,  1. 1,  c.  8),  he  likens  their  dealing  with  Scrip- 
ture, their  violent  transpositions  of  it  till  it  became  altogether  a  different  thing  in 
their  hands,  to  their  fraud,  who  should  break  up  some  work  of  exquisite  mosaic, 
wrought  by  a  skilful  artificer  to  present  the  effigy  of  a  king,  and  should  then 
recompose  the  pieces  upon  some  wholly  different  plan,  and  make  them  to  express 
some  vile  image  of  a  fox  or  dog,  hoping  that,  since  they  could  point  to  the  stones 
as  being  the  same,  they  should  be  able  to  persuade  the  simple  that  this  was  the 
king's  image  still. 

t  Thus  Con.  Har.,  1.  2,  c.  27.  Et  ideo  parabolae  debent  non  ambiguis  adaptari : 
sic  enim  et  qui  absolvit  sine  periculo  absolvit,  et  parabolae  ab  omnibus  similiter 
absolutionem  accipient :  et  a  veritate  corpus  integrum,  et  simili  aptatione  mem- 
brorum  et  sine  concussione  perseverat.  Sed  qua;  non  apertfe  dicta  sunt  neque  ante 
oculos  posita,  copulare  absolutionibus  parabolarum,  quas  unusquisque  prout  vult 
adinvenit  [stultum  est].  Sic  enim  apud  nullum  erit  regula  veritatis,  sed  quanti 
fuerint  qui  absolvent  parabolas,  tantfE  videbuntur  veritates  pugnantes  semet  invi- 
cem.  So  too  c.  3  :  Quia  autem  parabohe  possunt  multas  recipere  absolutiones.  ex 
ipsis  de  inquisitione  Dei  affirmare,  relinquentes  quod  certum  et  indubitatum  et 
verum  est,  valde  prajcipitantium  se  in  periculum  et  irrationabilium  esse,  quis  non 
amantiiim  vcritatcm  confitebitur  1  et  numquid  hoc  est  non  in  petra  flrnia  et  valida 
et  in  aperto  posita.  anlificare  suam  donium.  sed  in  incertum  effusix;  aren*!  Unde 
et  facilis  est  eversio  hujusmodi  fcdificationis.  Cf.  1.  2,  c.  10;  and  for  an  example 
of  what  they  were  able  to  bring  out  of  a  parable,  sec  the  explanations  of  the  Lost 
Sheep,  and  the  Lost  Piece  of  Money.  1.  1,  c.  16.  The  miracles  were  submitted  by 
them  to  the  same  process  of  interpretation ;  see  1.  1,  c.  7,  and  1.  2,  c.  24. 


42  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES. 

could  therefore  shape  or  mould  it  as  they  would.  They  found  no 
difficulty  then  in  forcing  the  parables  to  be  upon  their  side.  For  they 
readily  modified  their  scheme,  shaping  their  doctrine  according  to  the 
leadings  and  suggestions  of  these,  till  they  brought  the  two  into  apparent 
agreement  with  one  another.  There  was  nothing  to  hinder  them  here ; 
their  doctrine  was  not  a  fixed  body  of  divine  truth  to  which  they  could 
neither  add  nor  take  away,  which  was  given  them  from  above,  and  in 
which  they  could  only  acquiesce  :  but  it  was  an  invention  of  their  own, 
and  they  could  invent  and  fashion  it  as  they  pleased,  and  as  best  suited 
their  purposes.  We,  as  Tertullian  often  says,  are  kept  within  limits  in 
the  exposition  of  the  parables,  accepting  as  we  do  the  other  Scriptures 
as  the  rule  to  us  of  truth,  as  the  rule  therefore  of  their  interpretation. 
It  is  otherwise  with  these  heretics ;  their  doctrine  is  their  own ;  they 
can  first  dexterously  adapt  it  to  the  parables,  and  then  bring  forward 
this  adaptation  as  a  testimony  of  its  truth.* 

As  it  was  with  the  G-nostics  of  the  early  Church,  exactly  so  was  it 
with  the  cognate  sects  of  a  later  day,  the  Cathari,  and  Bogomili ;  they 
too  found  in  the  parables  no  teaching  about  sin  and  grace  and  redemp- 
tion, no  truths  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  fitted  to  them  the  speculations 
about  the  creation,  the  origin  of  evil,  the  fall  of  angels,  which  were 
uppermost  in  their  minds,  which  they  had  not  drawn  from  Scripture, 
but  which  having  framed,  they  afterwards  turned  to  Scripture  to  find  if 
there  was  not  something  there  which  they  could  compel  to  fall  into  their 
scheme.  Thus  the  apostasy  of  Satan  and  his  drawing  after  him  a  part 
of  the  host  of  heaven,  they  found  set  forth  by  the  parable  of  the  Unjust 
Steward.  Satan  was  the  chief  steward  over  God's  house,  whom  he 
deposed  from  his  place  of  highest  trust,  and  who  then  drew  after  him 
the  other  angels  with  the  suggestion  of  lighter  tasks  and  relief  from  the 
burden  of  their  imposed  duties.f 

*  De  Pudicitid,  c.  8,  9.  Among  much  else  which  is  interesting,  he  says,  Hsere- 
tici  parabolas  quo  volunt  trahunt,  non  quo  debent,  aptissim^  excludunt.  [His 
image  is  from  the  workers  in  gold  or  rather  metals  ;  called  exclusores  (see  Augus- 
tine, Enarr.  in  Ps.  liv.  22)  from  excludere,  to  strike  or  stamp  out  (Du  Cango,  s.  v.) 
This  meaning  of  the  word  excludere  is  wanting  in  Scheller's  Diclionari/.]  Quare 
aptissimfe  1  Quoniam  k  primordio  secundihm  occasioues  parabolarum.  ipsas  mate- 
rias  conflnxerunt  doctrinae.  Vacavit  scilicet  illis  solutis  h.  reg\il&.  veritatis,  ea  con- 
quirere  atque  componere,  quorum  parabola  videntur.  Thus  too  De  Prcrsc.  Hccret., 
c.  8,  Valentinus  non  ad  materiam  Scripturas  sed  materiam  ad  Scripturas,  excogi- 
tavit. 

f  Neander,  Kirch.  Gcsch.,  v.  5,  p.  1082.  They  dealt  more  perversely,  and  at 
the  same  time  more  characteristically  still,  with  the  parable  of  the  Servant  that 
owed  the  ten  thousand  talents  {Ibid,  v.  5,  p.  1122) :  This  servant  too.  with  whom 
the  king  reckons,  is  Satan  or  the  Demiurgus,  his  wife  and  children  whom  the  king 
orders  to  be  sold,  the  first  his  Sophia  or  intelligence,  the  second  the  angels  subject 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  43 

But,  though  not  testifying  to  evils  at  all  so  grave  in  the  devisers  of 
the  scheme,  nor  leading  altogether  out  of  the  region  of  Christian  truth, 
yet  sufficiently  injurious  to  the  sober  interpretation  of  the  parables, 
is  such  a  theory  concerning  them  as  that  entertained,  and  in  actual 
exposition  carried  out  by  Cocceius,  and  his  followers  of  what  we  may 
call  the  historico-prophetical  school.  By  the  parables,  they  say,  and  so 
far  they  have  right,  are  declared  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
But  then  laying  hold  of  the  term,  kingdom  of  God,  and  understanding 
it  in  far  too  exclusive  a  sense,  they  are  determined  to  find  in  every  one 
of  the  parables  a  part  of  the  history  of  that  kingdom's  progressive 
development  in  the  world,  to  the  remotest  times.  They  will  not  allow 
any  to  be  merely  for  exhortation,  for  reproof,  for  instruction  in  right- 
eousness, but  affirm  all  to  be  historico-prophetical.  Thus,  to  let  one  of 
them  speak  for  himself,  in  the  remarkable  words  of  Krummacher,* — 
"  The  parables  of  Jesus  have  not  primarily  a  moral,  but  a  politico- 
religious,  or  theocratic  purpose.  To  use  a  comparison,  we  may  consider 
the  kingdom  of  God  carried  forward  under  his  guidance,  as  the  action, 
gradual!}'  unfolding  itself,  of  an  Epos,  whose  first  germ  lay  prepared 
long  beforehand  in  the  Jewish  economy  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  which 
through  him  began  to  unfold  itself,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  to  the  end 
of  time.  The  name  and  subscription  of  the  Epos  is,  Tlie  Jdngdom  of 
God.  The  parables  belong  essentially  to  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom, 
not  merely  as  containing  its  doctrine,  but  its  progressive  development. 
They  connect  themselves  with  certain  fixed  periods  of  that  development, 
and,  as  soon  as  these  periods  are  completed,  lose  themselves  in  the  very 
completion :  that  is,  considered  as  independent  portions  of  the  Epos, 
remaining  for  us  only  in  the  image  and  external  letter.''  He  must  mean, 
of  course,  in  the  same  manner  and  degree  as  all  other  fulfilled  prophecy 
— in  the  light  of  such  accomplished  prophecy,  he  would  say,  they  must 
henceforth  be  regarded. 

Boyle  gives  some,  though  a  very  moderate  countenance,  to  the  same 
opinion,  saying  of  the  parables,  "  Some,  if  not  most,  do,  like  those  oysters 
that,  besides  the  meat  they  afi"ord  us,  contain  pearls,  not  only  include 
excellent  moralities,  but  comprise  important  prophecies ;"  and  having 
adduced  the  Mustard  Seed  and  the  Wicked   Husbandmen  as  plainly 

to  liim.  God  pitied  him,  and  did  not  take  from  hira  his  liigher  intelligence,  his 
subjects  or  his  goods ;  ho  promising,  if  God  would  have  patience  with  him,  to 
create  so  great  a  number  of  men  as  should  supply  the  place  of  the  fallen  angels. 
Therefore  God  gave  hira  permission  that  for  six  daj-s,  the  six  thousand  years  of  the 
present  world,  he  should  bring  to  pass  what  he  could  with  the  world  which  he  had 
created — But  this  will  suffice. 

*  Not  the  Krummacher  who  is  now,  or  was  of  late,  so  popular  in  England,  but 
his  father,  himself  the  author  of  a  volume  of  very  graceful  original  parables. 


44  ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES. 

containing  such  prophecies,  he  goes  on.  '•  I  despair  not  to  see  unheeded 
prophecies  disclosed  in  others  of  them."*  Vitringa's  Elucidation  of  the 
Parables]  is  a  practical  application  of  this  scheme  of  interpretation,  and 
one  which  certainly  is  not  calculated  to  give  one  a  very  favorable  opinion 
of  it.  As  a  specimen,  the  servant  owing  the  ten  thousand  talents  (Matt, 
xviii.  23),  is  the  Pope,  or  line  of  Popes,  placed  in  highest  trust  \xi  the 
Church,  but  who,  misusing  the  powers  committed  to  them,  were  warned 
by  the  invasion  of  Groths,  Lombards,  and  other  barbarians,  of  judgment 
at  the  door,  and  indeed  seemed  given  into  their  hands  for  punishment ; 
but  being  mercifully  delivered  from  this  fear  of  imminent  destruction  at 
the  time  of  Charlemagne,  so  far  from  repenting  and  amending,  on  the 
contrary,  now  more  than  ever  oppressed  and  maltreated  the  true 
servants  of  God,  and  who  therefore  should  be  delivered  over  to  an 
irreversible  doom.  He  gives  a  yet  more  marvellous  explanation  of  the 
Merchant  seeking  goodly  pearls,  this  pearl  of  price  being  the  church  of 
Geneva !  and  the  doctrine  of  Calvin  opposed  to  all  the  abortive  pearls, 
that  is,  to  all  the  other  reformed  Churches.  Other  examples  may  be 
f6und  in  Cocceius — an  interpretation,  for  instance,  of  the  Ten  Virgins, 
after  this  same  fashion.^  Deyling  has  an  interesting  essay  on  this  school 
of  interpreters,  and  passes  a  severe,  though  certainly  not  undeserved, 
condemnation  on  them.^  Prophetical,  no  doubt,  many  of  the  parables 
are,  for  they  declare  how  the  new  element  of  life,  which  the  Lord  was 
bringing  into  men's  hearts  and  into  the  world,  would  work — the  future 

*  On  the  Style  of  the  Holy  Scriptures :  Fifth  Objection.  There  is  nothing  new 
however  in  tliis  scheme,  for  it  is  evident  from  many  passages,  that  Origen  had  very 
much  the  same  belief  I  would  refer  particularly  to  what  he  says  on  the  parable  ^ 
of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard  [Conim.  in  Matth.  xx.),  where  he  seems  to  labor 
under  the  sense  of  some  great  undisclosed  mystery  concerning  the  future  destinies 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  lying  hidden  in  that  parable.  St.  Ambrose  {Apolog.  Alt. 
David,  c.  57)  gives  a  strange  historico-prophetical  interpretation  of  Nathan's 
parable  of  the  Ewe  Lamb  :  and  Hippolytus  {De  Aritichristo,  c.  57),  of  the  Unjust 
Judge. 

f  Erkldrung  der  Parabolen. — Being  published,  not  like  most  of  his  other  works  in 
Latin,  but  originally  in  Dutch,  it  is  far  less  known,  as  indeed  it  deserves  to  be,  than 
his  other  oftentimes  very  valuable  works.  I  have  made  use  of  a  German  transla- 
tion, Frankfort,  1717.  The  volume  consists  of  more  than  a  thousand  rather  closely- 
printed  pages,  and  has  wonderfully  little  grain  to  be  winnowed  out  from  a  most 
unreasonable  proportion  of  chaff. 

\  Schol.  in  Matlh.  xxv.  More  are  to  be  found  in  Gurtler's  Syst.  Thcol.  Proph. ; 
as  at  pp.  542,  676.  Deusingius,  Teelman,  D'Outrein,  Solomon  Van  Till,  may  be 
named  among  the  other  chief  writers  of  this  school. 

^  Obss.  Sac,  V.  5.  p.  331,  seq.  He  notes  how  the  same  scheme  of  interpretation 
has  been  applied  by  the  same  school  of  interpreters  to  the  miracles.  Of  this, 
various  examples  may  be  found  in  L.\mpe's  Comvicntary  on  St.  John, — see,  for  in- 
stance, on  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  (John  vi.).  They  form  the  weakest 
part  of  a  book  which  contains  in  other  respects  much  that  is  admirable. 


ON  THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  PARABLES.  45 

influences  and  results  of  his  doctrine — that  the  little  mustard-seed  would 
grow  to  a  great  tree — that  the  leaven  would  continue  working  till  it  had 
leavened  the  whole  lump.  But  they  declare  not  so  much  the  facts  as  ) 
the  laws  of  the  kingdom,  or  the  facts  only  so  far  as  by  giving  insight 
into  the  laws,  they  impart  a  knowledge  of  the  facts.  Historico-prophe- 
tical  are  only  a  few ;  as  for  instance,  that  of  the  Wicked  Husbandmen 
which  Boyle  adduced,  in  which  there  is  a  clear  prophecy  of  the  death  of 
Christ ;  as  that  again  of  the  Marriage  of  the  King's  Son,  in  which  there 
is  an  equally  clear  announcement  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
transfer  of  the  privileges  of  the  kingdom  of  God  from  the  Jews  to  the 
Gentiles  But  this  subject  will  again  present  itself  to  us  when  we  have 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  the  seven  parables  contained  in  the  13th  of 
St.  Matthew.  -    ,■.      '^  '•       *-" 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ON  OTHER  PARABLES  BESIDES  THOSE  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

However  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  this  form  of  composition, 
those  by  which  the  comparative  value  of  all  other  in  the  like  kind  are 
to  be  measured,  are  to  be  found  in  that  Book  which  is  the  most  perfect 
of  all  books,  yet  they  do  not  belong  exclusively  to  it.  The  parable,  as 
Jerome  has  noted,  is  among  the  favorite  vehicles  for  conveying  moral 
truth  in  all  the  East.  Our  Lord  took  possession  of  it,  honored  it  by 
making  it  his  own,  by  using  it  as  the  vehicle  for  the  very  highest  truth 
of  all.  But  there  were  parables  before  the  parables  which  issued  from 
his  lips.  It  seems  to  belong  to  our  subject  to  say  a  little  concerning 
those,  which,  though  they  did  not  give  the  pattern  to,  yet  preceded  his, 
concerning  those  also  which  were  formed  more  or  less  immediately  on 
the  suggestion  and  in  the  imitation  of  his,  on  the  Jewish,  that  is,  and  the 
Christian.     And  first  upon  the  Jewish  parables. 

Some  indeed  have  denied,  but  against  all  testimony,  that  this  method 
of  teaching  by  parables  was  current  among  the  Jews  before  our  Saviour's 
time.  To  this  they  had  been  mainly  led  by  the  fear  lest  it  should  de- 
tract from  his  glory,  to  suppose  that  he  had  availed  himself  of  a  manner 
of  teaching  already  in  use.  Yet  surely  the  anxiety  which  has  been 
often  shown,  and  of  which  this  is  a  specimen,  to  cut  off  the  Lord's 
teaching  from  all  living  connection  with  his  age  and  country  is  very 
idle,  and  the  suspicion  with  which  parallels  from  the  uninspired  Jewish 
writings  have  been  regarded,  altogether  misplaced.  It  is  the  same 
anxiety  which  would  cut  off  the  Mosaic  legislation  and  institutions  alto- 
gether from  Egypt  ;*  which  cannot  with  honesty  be  done,  and  which, 
in  truth,  there  is  no  object  whatever  in  attempting.  For  if  Christianity 
be  indeed  the  world-religion,  it  must  gather  into  one  all  dispersed  rays 


*  The  attempt  fails  even  when  made  by  so  able  and  learned  a  man  as  TTitsius. 
It  is  not  from  grounds  such  as  he  occupies  in  his  ^gyptiaca,  that  books  like  Spen- 
cer's De  Legifms  HebrcEoruin  can  be  answered. 


PARABLES  NOT  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES.  47 

of  light :  it  must  appropriate  to  itself  all  elements  of  truth  which  are 
any  where  scattered  abroad,  not  thus  adopting  what  is  alien,  but  rather 
claiming  what  is  its  own.*  There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  our  blessed 
Lord  so  spake,  as  that  his  doctrine,  according  to  its  outward  form,  should 
commend  itself  to  his  countrymen.  There  were  inner  obstacles  enough 
to  their  receiving  of  it ;  need  was  it  therefore  that  outwardly  it  should 
be  attractive.  Thus  he  appealed  to  proverbs  in  common  use  among 
them.  He  quoted  the  traditionary  speeches  of  their  elder  Rabbis,  to 
refute,  to  enlarge,  or  to  correct  them.  When  he  found  the  theological 
terms  of  their  schools  capable  of  bearing  the  burdeu  of  the  new  truth 
which  he  laid  upon  them,  he  willingly  used  them  ;t  and  in  using,  did 
not  deny  their  old  meaning,  yet  at  the  same  time  glorified  and  trans- 
formed it  into  something  far  higher.  He  used  them,  but  all  his  words 
being  creative,  and  he  making  all  things  new,  he  breathed  into  them 
also  a  new  spirit  of  life.  The  prayer,  "  Thy  kingdom  come,"  formed 
already  a  part  of  the  Jewish  liturgy,  yet  not  the  less  was  it  a  new  prayer 
on  the  lips  of  all  who  had  realized  in  any  measure  the  idea  of  the 
kingdom,  and  what  was  signified  by  the  coming  of  that  kingdom,  as 
he  first  had  enabled  them  to  realize  it.  So,  "  Peace  be  unto  you !" 
was  no  doubt  an  ordinary  salutation  among  the  Jews  long  before,  yet 
having  how  much  deeper  a  significance,  and  one  how  altogether  new 
upon  his  lips  who  was  our  Peace,  and  who,  first  causing  us  to  enter  our- 
selves into  the  peace  of  God,  enabled  us  "truly  to  wish  peace,  and  to 
speak  peace,  to  our  brethren.  In  like  manner  also  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  a  proselyte  was  in  the  Jewish  schools  entitled,  "  a  new  creature,"' 
and  his  passing  over  to  Judaism  was  called  "a  new  birth ;"|  yet  were 
these  terms  used,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  to  express  a  change  only  in  his 
outward  relations — that  his  kinsmen  were  his  kinsmen  no  more ;  it  re- 
mained for  Christ  and  his  apostles  to  appropriate  them  to  the  higher 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Nor  less  is  it  certain  that  the 
illustrating  of  doctrines  by  the  help  of  parables,  or  briefer  comparisons, 
was  eminently  in  use  among  the  Jewish  teachers.^  so  that  it  might  also 

*  In  the  words  of  Cr.F.MKNT  {Strom.,  1.  1,  c.  13):  Aucott)  tj  aKi)Sfeia  awayayeiv  to. 
o'lKeia  (TirfpnaTa,  k&v  fls  tV  aWoSair^i/  iKiriffri  yfjv. 

t  Thcro  is  an  interesting  Essay  in  this  point  of  view  by  Schoottgen  {Hur.  Hcb., 
V.  2,  p.  883.)  with  the  title  Chrlstus  Rabbinfyrum  suvimus.  In  the  same  way  the 
whole  coloring  of  Ezekiel's  visions,  and  the  symbols  which  he  uses,  are  Persian 
and  Babylonian  througliout,  they  belong,  that  is,  to  the  world  in  whieh  he  lived 
and  moved ;  yet  the  distinction  remains  as  wide  as  ever  between  a  Magian  or  Chal- 
da,'an  soothsayer  and  a  prophet  of  the  living  God. 

%  Schokttgen's  Hnr.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  pp.  328,  704. 

^  ViTRiNGA.  De  Siinaguga.  p.  678,  seq.  Hillel  and  Sohaniniai  were  the  most 
illustrious  teachers  by  parables  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour :  K.  Afeir  inune- 
diately  after.     With  this  last,  as  the  tradition  goes,  the  power  of  inventing  para- 


48  ON  OTHER  PARABLES  BESIDES 

be  said  of  them  as  of  him,  that  without  a  parable  they  taught  nothing. 
The  very  formuhis  with  which  their  parables  were  introduced  were  the 
same  as  those  we  find  in  the  Gospels;  for  instance,  the  question  "  Where- 
unto  shall  I  liken  it  ?"  is  of  continual  recurrence.  But  what  then  ?  it 
was  not  in  the  newness  of  the  forms,  but  in  the  newness  of  the  spirit, 
that  the  glory  and  superior  excellency  of  Christ's  doctrine  consisted. 

As  some  may  not  be  displeased  to  see  what  these  Jewish  parables 
are  like,  I  will  quote,  not  as  sometimes  has  been  done,  the  worst,  but 
the  best  which  I  have  had  the  fortune  to  meet.  The  following  is  occa- 
sioned by  a  question  which  has  arisen,  namely,  Why  the  good  so  aften 
die  young  ?  It  is  answered,  that  God  foresees  that  if  they  lived  they 
would  fall  into  sin.  "  To  what  is  this  like  ?  It  is  like  a  king  who, 
walking  in  his  garden,  saw  some  roses  which  were  yet  buds,  breathing 
an  ineffable  sweetness.  He  thought.  If  these  shed  such  sweetness  while 
yet  they  are  buds,  what  will  they  do  when  they  are  fully  blown  1  After 
a  while,  the  king  entered  the  garden  anew,  thinking  to  find  the  roses 
now  blown,  and  to  delight  himself  with  their  fragrance ;  but  arriving  at 
the  place,  he  found  them  pale  and  withered,  and  yielding  no  smell.  He 
exclaimed  with  regret,  '  Had  I  gathered  them  while  yet  tender  and 
young,  and  while  they  gave  forth  their  sweetness,  I  might  have  de- 
lighted myself  with  them,  but  now  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them.'  The 
next  year  the  king  walked  in  his  garden,  and  finding  rosebuds  scatter- 
ing fragrance,  he  commanded  his  servants,  '  Gather  them,  that  I  may 
enjoy  them,  before  they  wither,  as  last  year  they  did.'  "*  The  next  is 
ingenious  enough,  though  a  notable  specimen  of  Jewish  self-righteous- 
ness : — "  A  man  had  three  friends :  being  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  king,  he  was  terrified,  and  looked  for  an  advocate :  the  first,  whom 
he  had  counted  the  best,  altogether  refused  to  go  with  him ;  another 
replied  that  he  would  accompany  him  to  the  door  of  the  palace,  but 
could  not  speak  for  him  ;  the  third,  whom  he  had  held  in  least  esteem, 
appeared  with  him  before  the  king,  and  pleaded  for  him  so  well  as  to 
procure  his  deliverance.  So  every  man  has  three  friends,  when  sum- 
moned by  death  before  God.  his  Judge :  the  first,  whom  he  most  prized, 
his  money,  will  not  go  with  him  a  step ;  the  second,  his  friends  and 
kinsmen,  accompany  him  to  the  tomb,  but  no  further,  nor  can  they  de- 
liver him  in  the  judgment ;  while  the  third,  whom  he  had  in  least  es- 
teem, the  Law  and  good  works,  appear  with  him  before  the  king  and 
deliver  him  from  condemnation."!     But  this  is  in  a  nobler  strain ;  it  is 


bias  notably  declined.    This  is  not  hard  to  understand.   The  fig-tree  of  the  Jewish 
people  was  withered,  and  could  put  forth  no  fruit  any  more.  (Matt.  xxi.  19.) 

*  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Heb.,  v.  1,  p.  682. 

t  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  1129.    How  different  is  this  view  of  the  Law 


THOSE  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES.  49 

suggested  by  those  words,  "  In  tliy  light  shall  we  see  light."  "  As  a 
man  travelling  by  night  kindled  his  torch,  which,  when  it  was  extin- 
guished, he  again  lit,  and  again,  but  at  length  exclaimed,  '  How  long 
shall  I  weary  myself  in  my  way  ?  better  to  wait  till  the  sun  arise,  and 
when  the  sun  is  shining  I  will  pursue  my  journey' — so  the  Israelites 
were  oppressed  in  Egypt,  but  delivered  by  Moses  and  Aaron.  Again 
they  were  subdued  by  the  Babylonians,  when  Chananiah,  Misael,  and 
Azariali  delivered  them.  Again  they  were  subdued  by  the  Grecians, 
when  Mattathias  and  his  sons  helped  them.  At  length  the  Romans 
overcame  them,  when  they  cried  to  God,  '  \ie  are  weary  with  the  con- 
tinual alternation  of  oppression  and  deliverance ;  we  ask  no  further 
that  mortal  man  may  shine  upon  us,  but  God,  who  is  holy  and  blessed 
for  ever.'  "*  There  is  a  fine  one  of  the  fox,  who  seeing  the  fish  in  great 
trouble,  darting  hither  and  thither,  while  the  stream  was  being  drawn 
with  nets,  proposed  to  them  to  leap  on  dry  land.  This  is  put  in  a 
Rabbi';;  mouth,  who,  when  the  Graico-Syriau  kings  were  threatening 
with  death  all  who  observed  the  law,  was  counselled  by  his  friends  to 
abandon  it.  He  would  say,  "We,  like  the  fish  in  the  stream,  are  indeed 
in  danger  now,  but  yet,  while  we  continue  in  obedience  to  God,  we  are 
in  our  element ;  but  if,  to  escape  the  danger,  we  forsake  that,  then  we 
inevitably  perish."! — Again,  there  is  one  of  much  tenderness,  to  explain 
why  a  proselyte  is  dearer  to  the  Lord  than  even  a  Levite.  Such  prose- 
lyte is  compared  to  a  wild  goat,  which,  brought  up  in  the  desert,  joins 
itself  freely  to  the  flock,  and  which  is  cherished  by  the  shepherd  with 
especial  love ;  since,  that  his  flock,  which  from  its  youth  he  had  put 
forth  in  the  morning  and  brought  back  at  evening,  should  love  him,  was 
nothing  strange ;  but  this, — that  the  goat,  brought  up  in  deserts  and 
mountains,  should  attach  itself  to  him,  demanded  an  especial  return  of 
affection  I — There  are  besides  these  a  multitude  of  briefer  ones,  deserv- 


as  an  advocate  with  the  Judge,  from  that  given  by  our  Lord  (Matt.  v.  25,  26,)  who 
compares  it  to  an  adversary  dragging  us  before  a  tribunal  where  we  are  certain  to 
be  worsted  !  This  parable,  like  so  much  else  that  is  to  be  found"  in  the  Rabbinical 
books,  reappears  in  many  quarters ;  in  the  Eastern  Romance,  Barlaam  and  Jose- 
phat,  c.  13  ;  and  among  the  traditional  sayings  of  Mahomet.  (See  Von  Hammer's 
Pmulgruben  d.  Orients,  v.  1.  p.  315.) 

*  Schoettgen's  Har.  Hcb..  v.  2,  p.  691. 

t  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  189. 

X  Scfioettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  377.  This  too  on  the  resurrection  is  good 
(CoccKics,  E.rcerpt.  Gem.,  p.  232):  R.  Amrain  rejjlied  to  a  Sadducce  who  said, 
Numquid  pulvis  vivef? — Rem  tjbi  hac  parabola,  explicabo.  Rex  quidara  jusserat 
a.  servis  suis  palatium  in  loco,  qui  aquS,  et  limo  careret,  extrui.  Factum.  Eo  col- 
lapso,  jnssit  id  reaidificari  in  loco  ubi  utriusque  erat  copia.  Negant  se  posse. 
Turn  ille  iratns.  Quiuu  abesset  aqua  ct  liinus,  potuistis  :  nunc  quum  utrumque  ad- 
sit,  non  possetis  ? 

4 


50  ON  OTHER  PARABLES  BESIDES 

ing  the  title  of  similitudes  rather  than  of  parables.  Thus  there  is  one, 
urging  collection  of  spirit  in  prayer,  to  this  eifect : — "  If  a  man  brought 
a  request  to  an  earthly  monarch,  but  instead  of  making  it,  were  to  turn 
aside  and  talk  with  his  neighbor,  might  not  the  king  be  justly  dis- 
pleased ?"* — In  another,  the  death  common  to  all,  and  the  doom  after 
death  so  different  to  each,  is  likened  to  a  king's  retinue  entering  a  city 
at  a  single  gate,  but  afterward  lodged  within  it  very  differently,  accord- 
ing to  their  several  dignity.f  There  is  a  singular  one  to  explain,  why 
God  has  not  told  which  command  should  have  the  greatest  reward  for 
its  keeping. I — In  another  it  is  shown  how  body  and  soul  are  partners  in 
sin,  and  so  will  justly  be  partners  in  punishment.^ 

These,  with  two  or  three  more,  which,  bearing  some  resemblance  to 
Evangelical  parables,  will  be  noted  in  their  due  places,  are  the  most 
memorable  which  I  have  met.  When  these  last  are  brought  into 
comparison,  I  think  it  will  be  acknowledged  that  the  resemblance  is  one 
lying  merely  on  the  surface,  and  is  nothing  so  extraordinary,  as  some 
writers  have  given  out.  Some,  indeed,  have  thought  the  similarity  so 
great,  as  needed  in  some  way  or  other  to  be  accounted  for,  and  have 
supposed  that  our  Lord  adopted  those  which  he  found  in  any  way  fitted 
for  his  purpose,  remodelling  and  improving  them  as  they  passed  under 
his  hands.  Others  suppose  that  the  Jewish  parables  are  of  later  origin 
than  those  in  the  Gospels,  and  that  the  Rabbis,  while  they  searched  the 
Christian  books  for  the  purpose  of  ridiculing  or  gainsaying  them, 
enriched  themselves  with  their  spoils,  borrowing  sayings  and  narrations 
which  they  afterwards  used,  concealing  carefully  the  source  from  whence 


*  Schoettgen's  Hot.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  656.  The  same  comparison  ■with  slight 
Tariation  occurs  in  Chrysostom  {Horn.  1,  in  Oziam),  and  again  with  further  modifi- 
cation, Hovi.  51,  in  Matth. 

t  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Heb.,  v.  1,  p.  388. 

X  Ihid.,  V.  1,  p.  187. 

%  CoccEius  {Excerpt.  Gem.,  p.  232) :  Antoninus  cum  R.  Jehuda,  sancto  sic  col- 
loquutus  aliquando  est.  Corpus  inquit  et  anima  a  judicio  se  liberare  possunt. 
Quomodo  1  Corpus  dicat,  Anima  peccavit,  nam  ex  quo  ilia  h  me  discessit,  ecce 
lapidis  instar  sine  sensu  in  sepulcro  jacui.  Anima  autem  dicat,  Corpus  peccavit, 
nam  ex  quo  illius  laxata  sum  nexu,  ecce  vohto  per  aerem  aviculfe  in  morem.  Ad 
hfec  Rabbi,  Parabolam,  iniquit,  tabi  dabo.  Rex  mortahs  horto  cuidam  amoenissi- 
mo,  in  quo  maturi  fructus  essent,  duos  custodes  apposuit,  claudum  et  caecum. 
Claudus,  visis  fructibus,  cnecum  admonuit,  ipsura  uti  in  humeros  reciperet,  quo  illos 
decerperet,  et  illi  inter  se  devorarent.  Insedit  igitur  claudus  caeci  cervicibus.  de- 
cerptosque  fructus  absumserunt.  Aliquanto  post  tempore  venit  Dominus  horti  et 
de  fructibus  requisivit.  Cum  csecus,  sibi  oculos  non  esse  ut  videret,  et  claudus, 
sibi  pedes  deesse,  ut  accederet.  Quid  ille  1  Quuni  jussisset  hunc  illius  humeris 
excipi,  utrumque  simul  judicavit  et  plexit.  Consimiliter  faciet  Deus :  animi  cor- 
pori  inditJi,  pariter  animam  et  corpus  judicabit. 


THOSE  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES.  51 

they  were  derived.*  But  neither  of  these  suppositions  seems  necessary. 
Lightfoot  has  a  collection  of  such  sayings  under  the  title, —  Wit  stolen  by 
the  Jews  out  of  the  Gospel  /f  but  neither  here,  nor  in  the  parallels  else- 
where adduced,  is  the  resemblance  so  striking  as  to  carry  any  persuasion 
to  my  mind,  of  the  necessity,  or  even  the  probability,  of  a  common  origin. 
The  hatred  and  scorn  with  which  the  Jews  regarded  the  sacred  books  of 
the  Christians,  a  hatred  which  extended  to  all  foreign  literature,  but 
which  was  felt  with  especial  force  in  regard  to  them.J  makes  this  last 
supposition  extremely  improbable. 

The  resemblance,  after  all,  is  merely  such  as  must  needs  have  found 
place,  or  at  least  could  with  difficulty  have  been  avoided,  when  the  same 
external  life,  and  the  same  outward  nature,  were  used  as  the  common 
storehouse,  from  whence  images,  illustrations,  and  examples  were  drawn 
alike  by  all.  Perhaps  it  will  be  as  well  at  once  to  consider  one  of  these 
Talmudical  parables,  frequently  compared  with  one  spoken  by  our  Lord. 
It  is  one  of  tlie  best  of  those  which  pretend  to  any  similarity  with  his, 
and  has  been  sometimes  likened  to  that  latter  part  of  the  Marriage  of 
the  King's  Son,  which  relates  to  the  wedding  garment.  "  The  Rabbis 
have  delivered  what  follows,  on  Eccl.  xii.  7,  where  it  is  written,  '  The 
spirit  shall  return  unto  God  who  gave  it.' — He  gave  it  to  thee  unspotted, 
see  that  thou  restore  it  unspotted  to  him  again.  It  is  like  a  mortal 
king,  who  distributed  royal  vestments  to  his  servants.  Then  those  that 
were  wise,  folded  them  carefully  up,  and  laid  them  by  in  the  wardrobe ; 
but  those  that  were  foolish  went  their  way,  and,  clothed  in  these 
garments,  engaged  in  their  ordinary  work.  After  a  while  the  king 
required  his  garments  again  ;  the  wise  returned  them  white  as  they  had 
received  them  ;  but  the  foolish,  soiled  and  stained.  Then  the  king  was 
well  pleased  with  the  wise,  and  said,  '  Let  the  vestments  be  laid  up  in 
the  wardrobe,  and  let  these  depart  in  peace ;'  but  he  was  angry  with  the 
foolish,  and  said,  '  Let  the  vestments  be  given  to  be  washed,  and  those 
servants  be  cast  into  prison :' — so  will  the  Lord  do  with  the  bodies  of  the 
righteous,  as  it  is  written,  Isai.  Ivii.  2 ;  with  their  souls,  1  Sam.  xxxv. 
29;  but  with  the  bodies  of  the  wicked,  Isai.  xlviii.  22;  Ivii.  21;  and 
with  their  souls,  1  Sam.  xxv.  29."^     But  with  the  exception  of  a  king 

*  So  Carpzow,  Storr,  Lightfoot,  and  Pfeiffer  {T/ieol.  Jud.  atque  Mohamm.,  th. 
4(M3.) 

f  Erubhin,  chap.  20. 

\  Gfrorer's  Urchrisknthum,  v.  1,  p.  115,  seq. 

^  Meuschen,  iV.  T.  ex  Talm.  illiist.,  p.  117;  see  others,  pp.  Ill,  194,  195;  and 
more  in  Wrstein's  N.  T.,  pp.  727.  765.  Those  given  by  Otto,  a  converted  Jew, 
who  afterwards  relapsed  into  Judaism,  in  a  book  entitled  Gali  Razia,  have  been 
taniiKTod  with  by  him  fur  the  purpose  of  making  the  resemblance  between  them 
and  the  Evangelical  parables  more  close,  else  they  would  be  remarkable  indeed. 
(Pfeikfkk's  Theol.  Jud.,  th.  39.) 


52  ON  OTHER  PARABLES  BESIDES 

appearing  in  each,  and  the  matter  of  praise  and  condemnation  turning 
on  a  garment,  what  resemWance  is  there  here  ?  In  fact,  if  we  penetrate 
a  little  below  the  surface,  there  is  more  real  similarity  between  this 
parable  and  that  of  the  Talents,  as  in  each  case  there  is  the  restoration 
of  a  deposit,  and  a  dealing  with  the  servants  according  to  their  conduct 
in  respect  of  that  deposit.  But  then,  how  remote  a  likeness  !  and  how 
capricious  the  whole !  The  distributing  of  garments  which  were  not  to 
be  worn,  and  afterwards  reclaiming  them, — what  analogy  has  this  to 
anything  in  actual  life?* — how  different  from  the  probability  that  a 
nobleman,  going  into  a  distant  country,  should  distribute  his  goods  to 
his  servants,  and  returning,  demand  from  them  an  account. f — There  are 
no  parables  in  the  apocryphal  Gospels.  Indeed,  where  a  moral  element 
is  altogether  wanting,  as  in  these  worthless  forgeries,  it  was  only  to  be 
expected  that  this,  as  every  other  form  of  communicating  spiritual  truth, 
should  be  absent  from  them. 

This  much  in  regard  of  the  Jewish  parables.  Among  the  Fathers  of 
the  Christian  Church  there  are  not  many,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  who 
have  professedly  constructed  parables  for  the  setting  forth  of  spiritual 
mysteries.  Two  or  three  such  parables  are  to  be  found  in  the  third 
book  of  the  Shephej-d  of  Hermas.  The  whole  of  that  third  book  is  in- 
deed parabolical,  as  it  sets  forth  spiritual  truths  under  sensuous  images, 
only  it  does  this  chiefly  in  visions,  that  is,  parables  for  the  eye  rather 
than  for  the  ear.  There  are,  however,  parables  in  the  strictest  sense  of 
the  word ;  this  for  example,^  which  is,  I  think,  an  improved  form  of  the 
rabbinical  parable  last  quoted  :  "  Restore  to  the  Lord  the  spirit  entire  as 
thou  hast  received  it ;  for  if  thou  gavest  to  a  fuller  a  garment  which  was 
entire,  and  desiredst  so  to  receive  it  again,  but  the  fuller  restored  it  to 
thee  rent,  wouldest  thou  receive  it?  wouldest  thou  not  say  in  anger. 
'  I  delivered  to  thee  my  garment  entire,  wherefore  hast  thou  torn  it  and 

*  This,  with  so  many  other  of  the  Rabbinical  parables,  sins  almost  against  every 
rule  given  as  needful  to  be  observed  in  such  an  invented  tale,  if  it  is  to  carry  any 
power  of  conviction  with  it,  by  the  author  of  the  treatise,  Ad  Herennium,  i.  9 : 
Verisimilis  narratio  erit,  si  ut-nios,  ut  opinio,  ut  natura  postulat,  dicemus ;  si  spatia 
temporum,  personarum  dignitates,  consiliorum  rationes,  locorum  opportunitates 
constabunt.  ne  refelli  possit,  aut  temporis  parum  fuisse,  aut  causam  nullam,  aut 
locum  idoneum  non  fuisse,  aut  homines  ipsos  facere  aut  pati  non  potuisse. — But 
how  wonderfully  do  all  these  requisites  meet  in  the  parables  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ! 

t  linger  (De  Parab.  Jes.  Nat.,  p.  162)  observes  that  he  has  gone  into  this  com- 
parison of  the  Evangelical  with  the  Jewish  parables, — Partim  ut  absterreremur  a 
solito  rabbinicos  locos  doctrinae  Jesu  quodammodo  aequiparandi  pruritu  ac  levitate, 
interdum  ad  interpretationem  juvandam  parum  utili,  .  .  .  partim  ut  inde  magis  ag- 
nosceremus  parabolarum  Jesu  prgestantiam. 

i  Simil.  9,  32,  cf.  Simil.  5,  2. 


THOSE  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES.  53 

made  it  useless  ?  It  is  now,  on  account  of  the  rent  which  thou  hast 
made  in  it,  of  no  more  service  to  me.'  If  thou  then  grievest  for  thy 
garment,  and  eomplainest  because  thou  receivest  it  not  entire  again, 
how,  thinkest  thou,  will  the  Lord  deal  with  thee,  who  gave  thee  a  perfect 
spirit,  but  which  spirit  thou  hast  marred,  so  that  it  can  be  of  no  more 
service  to  its  Lord?  for  it  became  useless  when  it  was  corrupted  by 
thee." — There  are  a  good  many  parables,  regularly  brought  forward  as 
such,  in  the  writings  of  Ephraem  Syrus,  but  such  of  these  as  I  am 
acquainted  with,  are  very  far  from  felicitous :  indeed  they  could  scarcely 
be  tamer  than  they  are.* — Eadmer,  a  disciple  of  Anselm,  has  preserved 
a  sort  of  basket  of  fragments  from  his  sermons  and  his  table-talk. 
Among  these  there  are  so  many  of  his  similitudes  and  illustrations  as 
to  give  a  name  to  the  whole  collection.!  There  are  not  a  few  complete 
parables  here,  though  none  perhaps  of  that  beauty  which  the  works  that 
come  directly  from  him  might  have  led  us  to  expect. 

Far  better  are  those  interspersed  through  the  Greek  religious  romance 
of  •the  seventh  or  eighth  century,  Barlaam  and  Josaplmt^  ascribed,  with- 
out, I  believe,  any  sufficient  grounds,  to  St.  John  of  Damascus,  and  often 
printed  with  his  works.     They  have  been  justly  admired,^  yet  more 


*  This  is  the  best  that  I  know,  of  which,  however,  I  only  judge  in  its  Latin 
translation :  Duo  homines  proficiscebantur  ad  quandam  civitatera,  quae  stadiis  abe- 
rat  triginta.  Ciira  autem  jam  duo  aut  tria  confecissent  stadia,  obtulit  se  in  via. 
locus,  in  quo  sylvac  et  arbores  eranfc  urabrosae.  fluentaque  aquarum,  multaque  ibi- 
dem dclectatio.  Qui  dum  conteniplarentur  ista.  alter  quidem  ad  urbem  spectan- 
dam  contcndens,  instar  cursoris  locum  prajteribat ;  alter  vero,  cilm  constitisset  ut 
conteniplaretur,  remansit.  Deinde  cilni  prodire  jam  vellet  extra  arborum  umbram, 
calores  timuit,  atque  ita  diutius  ibidem  loci  dum  remaneret,  locique  simul  amoeni- 
tate  sese  delectaret  atque  occuparct,  bestia  ex  lis  quje  in  sylvd,  comraorantur  pro- 
diit,  apprehensumque  ipsura  pertraxit  in  suum  antrum  :  alter  vero  qui  neque  iter 
neglexisset,  neque  forma  arborum  se  detineri  passiis  esset,  rectA  ad  urbem  perrexit. 
See  also  ParcRties.,  21,  28. 

t  De  S.  Anselm:  ^imilitudiniius.  It  is  publi.shed  at  the  end  of  the  Benedict, 
edit,  of  St.  Anselm.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  can  find  a  better  than  this,  upon 
the  keeping  of  the  heart  with  all  diligence,  of  which,  however,  I  can  quote  no  more 
than  is  necessary  for  giving  an  insight  into  the  whole  (c.  41) :  Cor  etenim  nostrum 
simile  est  molendino  semper  molenti,  quod  Dominus  quidam  cuidam  servo  suo  cus 
todiendum  dedit :  pra;cipiens  ei  ut  snam  tantfim  aniionam  in  eo  molat,  et  ex  eodem 
quod  moluerit,  ipse  vivat.  Vorum  illi  servo  quidam  inimicatur,  qui  si  quando 
ilhid  vacuum  invenerit,  aut  aretiani  ibi  statim  projicit,  quae  illud  dissipat ;  aut 
picam,  quae  conglutinat;  aut  aliquid  quod  foedat;  aut  paleam  qujB  tantilm  illud 
occupat.  Servus  igitur  illo  si  molendinum  suum  bene  custodierit,  Dominique  sui 
tantilm  annonam  in  illo  moluerit.  et  Domino  suo  servit.  sibique  ipsi  victum  acqui- 
rit.  Hoc  itaq\ie  molendinum  semper  aliquid  molens  cor  est  humanum,  assiduA 
ali(|uid  cogitans.     Cf  c.  42  46. 

I  See  DuNLOP's  History  of  Fiction,  London,  1845,  p.  40,  seq. 


54  ON  OTHER  PARABLES  BESIDES 

than  one  of  them  is  certainly  not  original,  being  easily  traced  up  to  ear- 
lier sources.  A  very  interesting  one  will  be  found  in  the  note  below.* 
Those  which  are  entitled  parables  in  the  writings  of  St.  Bernard,! 
which,  whether  they  be  his  or  no.  have  much  of  beauty  and  instruction 
in  them,  are  rather  allegories  than  parables,  and  so  do  not  claim  here  to 
be  considered.  But  if  parables,  which  are  professedly  such,  are  not  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  works  of  the  early  Church  writers,  the  para- 
bolical element  is,  notwithstanding,  very  predominant  in  their  teaching. 
This  was  only  to  be  expected,  especially  in  their  homilies,  which  are 
popular  in  the  truest  and  best  sense  of  the  word.  What  boundless  stores, 
for  instance,  of  happy  illustration,  which  might  with  the  greatest  ease 
be  thrown  into  the  forms  of  parables,  are  laid  up  in  the  writings  of  St. 
Augustine.  One  is  only  perplexed  amid  the  endless  variety  wha^;  in- 
stances to  select :  but  we  may  take  this  one  as  an  example.  He  is 
speaking  of  the  Son  of  God  and  the  sinner  in  the  same  world,  and  ap- 
pearing under  the  same  conditions  of  humanity ;  "  But,"  he  proceeds, 

*  TJrbem  qiiandam  magnam  exstitisse  accepi,  in  qu&  cives  hoc  in  more  et  insti- 
tute positum  habebant,  ut  peregrinum  quondam  et  ignotum  virum,  ac  legum  con- 
suetudinum  civitatis  omnino  rudem  et  ignarum  acciperent.  eumque  sibi  ipsis  regem 
constituerent.  penes  quem  per  unius  anni  curriculum  rerum  omnium  potestas  esset, 
quique  libera  et  sine  ullo  impedimento  quicquid  vellet.  faceret.  Post  autem,  dum 
ille  omni  prorsus  curd,  vacuus  degeret.  atque  in  luxu  et  deliciis  sine  ullo  metu 
versaretur,  perpetuumque  sibi  regnum  fore  existimaret,  repente  adversus  eum 
insurgentes.  regiamque  ipsi  vestem  detrahentes,  ac  nudum  per  totam  urbem  tan- 
quam  in  triumphum  agentes.  in  magnam  quandam  et  \ongh  remotam  insulam  eum 
relegabant.  in  qua,  nee  victu  nee  indumentis  suppetentibus,  fame  ac  nuditate  miser- 
rime  premebatur,  voluptate  scilicet  atque  animi  hilaritate,  quae  prseter  spem  ipsi 
concessa  fuerat,  in  raajrorem  rursus  prjeter  spem  omnem  et  expectationem  commu- 
tata,.  Contigit  ergo  ut  pro  antiquo  civium  illorum  more  atque  instituto  vir  quidam 
magno  ingenii  acumine  praeditus  ad  regnum  ascisceretur.  Qui  statim  subita  eh 
felicitate  qua?  ipsi  obtigerat.  haudquaquam  prjeceps  abreptus,  nee  eorum  qui  ante 
se  regiam  dignitatem  obtinuerant.  miser^que  ejecti  fuerant.  incuriam  imitatus, 
animo  anxio  et  solicito  id  agitabat,  quonam  pacto  rebus  suis  optimfe  consuleret. 
Dum  ergo  crebra  meditatione  hajc  secum  versaret.  per  sapientissimum  quendam 
consiliarium  de  civium  consuetudine  ac  perpetui  exilii  loco  certior  factus  est :  quo- 
nam pacto  sine  ullo  errore  ipse  sibi  cavere  deberet,  intellexit.  Cum  igitur  hoc 
cognovisset.  futurumque  propediem.  ut  ad  illam  insulam  ablegaretur.  atque  adven- 
titium  illud  ot  alienum  regnum  aliis  relinqueret,  patefactis  thesauris  suis.  quorum 
tunc  promptum  ac  liberum  usum  habebat.  aurique  atque  argenti  ac  preciosorum 
lapidum  ingenti  mole  faraulis  quibusdam  quos  fidissiraos  habebat.  tradit^,  ad  eam 
insulam.  ad  quam  abducendus  erat.  prjemisit.  Vertente  autem  anno  cives  commota. 
seditione  nudum  eum  quomadmodnm  superiores  reges  in  exilium  miserunt.  Ac 
caeteri  quidem  amentes,  et  brevis  temporis  reges.  gravissima  fame  laborabant :  ille 
contra  qui  opes  suas  praemiserat.  in  perpetuS.  rerum  copia  vitam  ducens,  atque 
infinite  voluptate  fruens.  perfidorum  ac  sceleratorum  civium  metu  prorsus  abjecto, 
sapientissimi  consilii  sui  nomine  beatum  se  praedicabat.     Compare  1  Tim.  vi.  19. 

t  In  the  Benedictine  edition,  v.  1,  p.  1251,  seq. 


THOSE  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES.  55 

"  how  great  a  difference  there  is  between  the  prisoner  in  his  dungeon 
and  the  visitor  that  has  come  to  see  him.  They  are  both  within  the  walls 
of  the  dungeon  :  one  who  did  not  know  might  suppose  them  under  equal 
restraint,  but  one  is  the  compassionate  visitor  who  can  use  his  freedom 
when  he  will,  the  other  is  fjist  bound  there  for  his  offences.  So  great  is 
the  difference  between  Christ,  the  compassionate  visitor  of  man,  and 
man  himself,  the  criminal  in  bondage  for  his  offences."*  Or  rebuking 
them  that  dare  in  their  ignorance  to  find  fault  with  the  arrangements  of 
Providence : — "  If  you  entered  the  workshop  of  a  blacksmith,  you  would 
not  dare  to  find  fault  with  his  bellows,  anvils,  hammers.  If  you  had — 
not  the  skill  of  a  workman,  but  the  consideration  of  a  man,  what  would 
you  say  1  '  It  is  not  without  cause  the  bellows  are  placed  here  ;  the 
artificer  knew,  though  I  do  not  know,  the  reason.'  You  would  not  ven- 
ture to  find  fault  with  the  blacksmith  in  his  shop,  and  do  you  dare  to 
find  fault  with  God  in  the  world?"! — Chrysostom,  too,  is  very  rich  in 
such  similitudes,  which  need  nothing  to  be  parables,  except  that  they 
should  be  presented  for  such ;  as  for  instance,  when  speaking  of  the  ex- 
altation of  outward  nature,  the  redemption  of  the  creature,  which  shall 
accompany  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  he  says,  "  To  what  is 
the  creation  like  ?  It  is  like  a  nurse  that  has  brought  up  a  royal  child, 
and  when  he  ascends  his  paternal  throne,  she  too  rejoices  with  him, 
and  is  partaker  of  the  benefit."^  But  the  field  here  opening  before  us 
is  too  wide  to  enter  on.^  It  is  of  parables  strictly  so  called,  and  not  all 
of  these.  II  but  of  such  only  as  are  found  in  the  New  Testament,  that 

*  In  Ep.  1  Joh.,  Tract.  2. 

t  Ennrr.  in  Ps.  cxlviii.  He  has  something  perhaps  more  nearly  approaching 
in  its  form  to  a  parable  than  either  of  these,  Enarr.  in  Ps.  ciii.  26. 

X  Uirm.  in  Rum.  viii.  19. 

{)  I  will  not,  however,  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  transcribing  the  following 
parable  from  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {De  Sacram.,  1.  2,  pars  14,  c.  8) :  Pater  quidam 
contumaceni  filium  quasi  cum  raagno  furore  expulit,  ut  ita  afflictus  humiliari  dis- 
ceret.  Sed  illo  in  contuniacia.  sua.  porsistente,  quadara  secretA  dispensatione  con- 
silii  h.  patre  mater  mittitur,  ut  non  quasi  it  patre  missa,  sed  quasi  maternft,  per  se 
pictate  ducta  veniens  muliebri  lenitate  obstinatum  dcmulcoat,  contumacem  ad 
humilitatem  flcctat,  vehenienter  patrem  iratum  nuntict,  se  tamen  interventuram 
spondeat,  consilium  salutis  suggcrat,  ....  non  nisi  magnis  precibus  ))atrera  pla- 
cari  posse  dicat ;  causani  tamen  rei  se  suscepturam  asserat,  et  ad  bonam  fiiiem 
rem  omneni  se  perducturam  promittat.  The  mother  here  he  presently  e.xplains 
as  divine  Grace.— Readers  that  have  at  hand  Poirkt's  remarkable  work,  (E'onomi 
niiina,  may  find  a  i)arablc  (v.  2,  p.  5-54),  1.  5,  c.  9,  ^  26,  which  is  too  long  to 
quote,  but  is  worthy  a  reference ;  and  another  in  S.vlmeron's  Serm.  in  Parab. 
Evang.,  p.  300. 

II  One  Persian,  however,  I  will  quote  for  its  deep  significance.  I  take  it  from 
Dksi.onociiami'.s'  Fables  Inf/iciiiu-s,  p.  64.  The  Persian  moralist  is  speaking  of  the 
manner  in  which  frivolous  and  sensual  pleasures  cause  men  to  forget  all  the  deeper 


56  PARABLES  NOT  IN  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

it  is  my  wish  to  speak :  and  these  I  would  now  proceed  severally  and  in 
order  to  consider. 

interests  of  their  spiritual  being :  On  ne  pent  mieux  assimiler  le  genre  humain  qu'i 
un  homme  qui,  fuyaut  un  ^Idphant  furieux,  est  descendu  dans  un  puits,  il  s'est 
accrocli^j  k  deux  rameaux  qui  en  couvrent  I'oriflce  ;  et  ses  pieds  se  sont  pos^s  sur 
quelque  chose  qui  forme  une  saillie  dans  I'interieur  du  m6me  puits :  ce  sont  quatre 
serpens  qui  sortcnt  leurs  tetes  hors  de  leur  repaires  ;  il  appergoit  au  fond  du  puits, 
un  dragon  qui  gueule  ouverte  n'attend  que  I'instant  de  sa  chiite  pour  le  devorer. 
Ses  regards  se  portent  vers  les  deux  rameaux  auquels  il  est  suspendu,  et  il  voit  k 
leiu"  naissance  deux  rats,  Tun  noir,  I'autre  blanc,  qui  ne  cessent  de  les  ronger.  Un 
autre  objet  cependant  se  presente  k  sa  vue  :  c'est  une  ruche  remplie  de  moucbes  k 
miel,  il  se  met  a  manger  de  leur  miel,  et  le  plaisir  qu'il  y  trouve  lui  fait  oublier  les 
serpens  sur  les(|uels  rcposent  ses  pieds,  les  rats  qui  rongent  les  rameaux  auxquels 
il  est  suspendu,  et  le  danger  dont  il  est  menace  k  chaque  instant,  de  devenir  la 
proie  du  dragon  qui  guette  le  moment  de  sa  chtite  pour  le  devorer.  Son  etourde- 
rie  et  son  illusion  ne  cessent  qu'avec  son  existence.  Ce  puits  c'est  le  monde  rempli 
de  dangers  et  de  miseres  ;  les  quatre  serpens  ce  sont  les  quatres  bumeurs  dont  le 
melange  forme  notre  corps,  mais  qui,  lorsque  leur  equilibre  est  rompu,  devierment 
autant  de  poisons  mortels  ;  ces  deux  rats.  Fun  noir,  I'autre  blanc,  ce  sont  le  jour  et 
la  nuit,  dont  la  succession  consume  la  dur^e  de  notre  vie ;  le  dragon  c'est  le  terme 
inevitable  qui  nous  attend  tous  ;  le  miel,  euHn,  ce  sont  les  plaisirs  des  ses  dont  la 
fausse  douceur,  nous  seduit  et  nous  d^tourne  du  chemin  oii  nous  devons  marcher. 
This  is  again,  with  some  slight  alterations,  to  be  found  among  the  specimens  of  the 
great  mystical  poet  of  Persia,  Dschelaleddin,  given  by  Yon  Hammer  ( Gesch.  d. 
schi'm.  Redck.  Pcrs.,  p.  183),  in  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  c.  12,  and  elsewhere.  In 
S.  DE  Sacy's  Chrest.  Arabe  (v.  2,  p.  364)  there  is  a  parable  by  an  Arabian  author 
which  bears  some  resemblance,  particularly  at  its  opening,  to  that  of  the  talents  ; 
and  in  Tholuck's  Blulhcnsamviluiig  aus  d.  Morgenl.  Mijst.,  there  are  several  joara- 
bles  from  the  mystical  poets  of  Persia,  for  instance,  a  beautiful  one,  p.  105. 


PARABLES. 


I. 

THE   SOWER. 

Matt.  xiii.  3-8,  and  18-23 ;   Mark  iv.  4-8,  and  14-21 ; 
Luke  viii.  5-8,  and  11-15. 

It  is  evidently  the  purpose  of  St.  Matthew  to  present  to  his  readers 
the  parables  recorded  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  his  Gospel  as  the  first 
which  the  Lord  spoke :  with  tliis  of  the  Sower  he  commenced  a  manner 
of  teaching  which  he  had  not  hitherto  used.  This  is  sufficiently  indi- 
cated by  the  question  which  the.  disciples  asked,  "  Why  speakcst  thou 
unto  them  in  parables?"  (ver.  10),  and  the  answer  which  our  Lord  gave 
(ver.  1 1-17),  in  which  he  justifies  his  use  of  this  method  of  teaching,  and 
declares  the'  purpose  which  he  had  in  adopting  it ;  and  no  less  so,  when 
he  seems  to  consider  this  parable  as  the  fundamental  one.  on  the  right 
understanding  of  which,  would  depend  their  comprehension  of  all  which 
were  tc  follow — "  Know  ye  not  this  parable?  and  how  then  will  ye  know 
all  parables  ?"  (Mark  iv.  13.)  And  as  this  was  the  first  occasion  on 
which  he  brought  forth  these  things  new  out  of  his  treasure  (see  ver.  22), 
so  was  it  the  occasion  on  which  he  brought  them  forth  with  the  largest 
hand.  We  have  not  any  where  else  in  the  Gospels  so  rich  a  group  of 
parables  assembled  together,  so  many  and  so  costly  pearls  strung  upon 
a  single  thread.  The  only  passage  that  will  bear  comparison  is  chap- 
ters XV.  and  xvi.  of  St.  Luke,  where  there  are  recorded  five  parables  that 
were  all  apparently  spoken  on  the  same  occasion.  The  seven  that  are 
here  recorded  divide  thcm.selves  into  two  smaller' groups. — the  first  four 
being  spoken  to  the  multitude  while  he  taught  them  out  of  the  ship, — 
the  three  last,  as  it  would  seem,  on  the  same  day,  in  the  narrower  circle 
of  his  disciples  at  his  own  home. 


58  THE  SOWER. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  the  parables  themselves,  let  us  seek  to 
realize  to  ourselves,  and  to  picture  vividly  to  our  minds  the  aspect  which 
the  outward  nature  wore,  and  what  the  scenery  was  with  which  our 
blessed  Lord  and  the  listening  multitudes  were  surrounded.  St.  Mat- 
thew tells  us  that  "  Jesus  went  out  from  the  house,"  probably  at  Caper- 
naum, which  was  the  city  where  he  commonly  dwelt  after  his  open  min- 
istry began  (Matt.  iv.  13),  "his  own  city"  (Matt,  ix  1),  and  which  was 
close  by  the  sea-shore,*  and  going  out  he  "  sat  down  by  the  sea-side," 
that  is,  by  the  lake  of  Grenesareth,  the  scene  of  so  many  incidents  in  his 
ministry.  This  lake  (now  Bahr  Tabaria)  goes  by  many  names  in  the 
Gospels.  It  is  often  called  simply  "the  sea"  (Mark  iv.  1),  or  "the 
Sea  of  Galilee"  (Matt.  xv.  29,  John  vi.  1),  or,  "the  sea  of  Tiberias" 
(John  xxi.  1),  though  indeed  it  was  an  inland  lake  of  no  very  great  ex- 
tent, being  but  about  sixteen  miles  in  length,  and  no  more  than  six  in 
breadth  But  it  might  well  claim  regard  for  its  beauty,  if  not  for  its 
extent :  the  Jewish  writers  would  have  it  that  it  was  beloved  of  God 
above  all  the  waters  of  Canaan,  and  indeed  almost  all  ancient  authors 
that  have  mentioned  it,  as  well  as  modern  travellers,  speak  in  glowing 
terms  of  the  beauty  and  rich  fertility  of  its  banks.  Hence  sometimes 
its  name  Genesareth  has  been  derived,  which  some  interpret  "  the  gar- 
den of  riches,"t  though  the  derivation,  I  believe,  is  insecure.  And  even 
now,  when  the  land  is  crushed  under  the  rod  of  Turkish  misrule,  many 
traces  of  its  former  beauty  remain,  many  evidences  of  the  fertility  which 
its  shores  will  again  assume  in  the  day  which  assuredly  cannot  be  very 
far  off,  when  that  rod  shall  be  lightened  from  them.  It  is  true  that  the 
olive-gardens  and  vineyards,  which  once  crowned  the  high  and  romantic 
hills  with  which  it  is  bounded  on  the  east  and  the  west,  have  disap- 
peared ;  but  the  citron,  the  orange,  and  the  date-tree,  are  still  found  in 
rich  abundance  ;  and  in  the  higher  regions,  the  products  of  a  more  tem- 
perate zone  meet  together  with  these ; — while  lower  down,  its  banks  are 
still  covered  with  aromatic  shrubs,  and  its  waters  are  still,  as  of  old, 
sweet  and  wholesome  to  drink,  and  always  cool,  clear,  and  transparent 
to  the  very  bottom,  and  as  gently  breaking  on  the  fine  white  sand  with 
which  its  shores  are  strewn  as  they  did  of  old,  when  the  feet  of  the  Son 
of  God  trod  those  sands,  or  walked  upon  those  waters.f    On  the  edge  of 

*  TV  Trapa^aKaffffiav,  probably  SO  called  to  distinguish  it  from  another  Caper- 
naum on  the  brook  Kishon. 

t  Jerome  {De  Noviin.  Heb.)  makes  Gennesar^hortus  prlncipium. 

:t:  Josephus  (Bell.  Jud.,  3.  10,  7)  rises  into  hig-h  poetical  animation  while  he  is 
describing  its  attractions  ;  and  in  Rohr's  Pakstma  (termed  by  Goethe,  a  glorious 
book),  p.  67,  there  is  a  singularly  beautiful  description  of  this  lake  and  the  neigh- 
boring country.  See  also  Lightfoot's  Chorograph.  Century,  c.  70,  79.  and  Meu- 
SCHEN,  Nov.  Test,  ex  TaXm.  illust.,  p.  151.    Yet  Robinson  {Bibl,  Researches,  v.  3, 


THE  SOWER.  59 

this  beautiful  lake  the  multitude  were  assembled,  in  such  numbers,  that 
probably,  as  on  another  occasion  (Luke  v.  1),  they  pressed  upon  the 
Lord,  so  that  he  found  it  convenient  to  enter  into  a  ship;  and  putting  off 
a  little  from  the  shore,  he  taught  them  from  it,  speaking  "  many  things 
unto  them  in  parables." 

First  in  order  is  the  parable  of  the  Sower.  It  rests,  like  so  many 
others,  on  one  of  the  common  familiar  doings  of  daily  life.  The  Lord 
lifted  up,  it  may  be,  his  eyes,  and  saw  at  no  great  distance  an  husband- 
man scattering  his  seed  in  the  furrows.  As  it  belongs  to  the  essentially 
popular  nature  of  the  Gospels,  that  parables  should  be  found  in  them 
ratlier  than  in  the  Epistles,  where  indeed  they  never  appear,  so  it  belongs 
to  the  popular  character  of  the  parable,  that  it  should  thus  rest  upon  the 
familiar  doings  of  common  life,  the  matters  which  occupy 

"  The  talk 
Man  holds  with  week-day  man  in  the  hourly  walk 
Of  the  world's  business ;" 

while  at  the  same  time  the  Lord,  using  these  to  set  forth  eternal  and 
spiritual  truths,  ennobles  them,  showing,  as  he  does,  how  they  continu- 
ally reveal  and  set  forth  the  deepest  mysteries  of  his  kingdom.  "  A  soiver 
went  forth  to  sow" — what  a  dignity  and  significance  have  these  few 
words,  used  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Lord  here  uses  them,  given  in  all 
after-times  to  the  toils  of  the  husbandman  in  the  furrow. 

The  comparison  of  the  relations  of  the  teacher  and  the  taught  to  those 
between  the  sower  and  the  soil,  and  of  the  truth  communicated  to  the 
seed  sown,  is  one  so  deeply  grounded  in  the  truest  analogies  between  the 
worlds  of  nature  and  of  spirit,  that  we  must  not  wonder  to  find  it  of  fre- 
quent recurrence,  not  merely  in  Scripture  (1  Pet.  i.  23 ;  1  John  iii.  9); 
but  in  the  works  of  all  the  wiser  heathens,*  of  all  who  have  realized  in  any 

p.  253)  gives  a  far  less  enthusiastic  account.  He  speaks  indeed  of  the  lake  as  a 
"  beautiful  sheet  of  limpid  water  in  a  deeply  depressed  basin ;"  but  the  form  of  the 
hills.  ••  regular  and  almost  unbroken  heights"  (p.  312),  was  to  his  ej'c  '■  rounded 
and  tame  :"  and  as  it  was  the  middle  summer  when  his  visit  was  made,  the  verdure 
of  the  spring  had  already  disappeared,  and  he  complains  of  nakedness  in  the 
general  asjject  of  the  scenery. 

*  Grotius  has  here  a  particularly  rich  collection  of  parallel  pas.sages  from  Greek 
and  Latin  writers;  he  or  others  have  adduced  such  from  Aristotle.  Cicero  (Tiisc. 
ii.  5),  Plutarch,  Quintilian,  Philo,  and  many  more ;  but  it  would  not  be  worth 
while  merely  to  repeat  their  quotations.  I  do  not  observe  that  any  have  this  one 
from  Seneca  (Ep.  73)  :  Deus  ad  homines  venit,  im6  (quod  propius  est)  in  homines 
venit.  Semina  in  corporibus  humanis  disperse  sunt,  quae  si  bonus  cultor  excipit, 
similia  origini  prodeunt,  et  paria  his  ex  quibus  orta  sunt  surgunt :  si  malus,  non 
alitor  quim  humus  sterilis  ac  palustris  necat,  ac  deinde  creat  purgamenta  pro 
fVugibus. 


60  THE  SOEVER. 

measure  what  teaching  means,  and  what  sort  of  influence  the  spirit  of 
one  man  ought  to  seek  to  exercise  on  the  spirits  of  his  fellows,  commu- 
nicating to  them  living  and  expanding  truths.  While  all  teaching  that 
is  worthy  the  name  is  such,  while  all  words,  even  of  men,  that  are  really 
words,  are  as  seeds,  with  a  power  to  take  root  in  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  those  that  hear  them,  contain  germs  in  them  that  only  by  degrees 
develope  themselves  ;*  in  a  much  higher  sense  must  this  be  true  of  the 
words,  or  rather  of  the  Word  of  Grod,  which  he  spake  who  was  himself 
the  Seminal  Word  which  he  communicated.!  Best  right  of  all  to  the 
title  of  seed  has  that  Word,  which  exercises  not  merely  a  partial  working 
on  the  hearts  in  which  it  is  received,  but  wholly  transforms  and  renews 
them, — that  Word  by  which  men  are  born  anew  into  the  kingdom  of 
Grod,  and  of  which  the  effects  endure  for  ever.  I  cannot  doubt  that  the 
Lord  intended  to  set  himself  forth  as  the  chief  sower  of  the  seed,  (not, 
of  course,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  apostles  and  their  successors.)  that  here, 
as  well  as  in  the  next  parable,  he  that  soweth  the  good  seed  is  the  Son  of 
man ;  and  this,  even  though  he  nowhere  in  the  three  interpretations  of 
the  present  one  announces  himself  as  such.|  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  we  can  stop  short  of  him,  when  we  are  seeking  to  give  the  full 
meaning  to  the  words,  ''  A  sower  ivent  forth  to  sota."^  His  entrance 
into  the  world  was  a  going  forth  to  sow ;  the  word  of  the  kingdom, 
which  word  he  first  proclaimed,  was  his  seed ;  the  hearts  of  men  his 
soil ; — others  only  were  able  to  sow  because  he  had  sown  first ;  they  did 
but  carry  on  the  work  which  he  had  auspicated  and  begun. 

"  And  lohen  he  sowed,  some  seeds  fell  by  tJie  ivay-side  [and  it  was 
trodden  doivn  (Luke  viii.  5)],  and  thefoivls  ca^ne  and  devoured  tliem  upP 
Some,  that  is,  fell  on  the  hard  footpath,  or  road,  where  the  glebe  was 
not  broken,  and  so  it  could  not  sink  down  in  the  earth,  but  lay  exposed 
on  the  surface  to  the  feet  of  passers  by,  till  at  length  it  became  an  easy 

*  Thus  Shakspeare,  of  a  man  of  thoughtful  wisdom  : 

"  His  plausive  words 
He  scattered  not  in  ears,  but  grafted  them 
To  grow  there  and  to  bear." 

f  Salmeron  very  beautifully  [Scrm.  in  Par.  Evang.,  p.  30)  :  Quemadmodim 
Christus  Medicus  est  et  medicina  Sacerdos  et  hostia,  Redemptor  et  redemptio, 
Legislator  et  lex.  Janitor  et  ostium  ita  Sator  et  semen.  Nee  euim  est  aliud  Evan- 
gclium  ipsum,  quim  Christus  incarnatus,  natus,  prasdicans,  morlens,  resurgens, 
mittens  Spiritum  Sanctum,  congregans  Ecclesiam,  illamque  sanctificans  et  gu- 
bernans. 

!  See.  however,  the  arguments  adduced  to  the  contrary  by  Mr.  Greswell  {Exp. 
of  the  Par.,  v.  5,  part  2,  p.  238). 

^  Salmeron  {Scrrti.  in  Parab..  p.  29)  :  Dicitur  exire  per  operationem  Incarna- 
tionis,  quJl  indutus  processit  tanquam  agricola  aptam  pluviae,  soli  et  frigori  vestem 
assumens,  cum  tamen  Rex  esset. 


THE  SOWER.  61 

prey  to  the  birds,  such  as  in  the  East  are  described  as  following  in  large 
flocks  the  liusbanduian,  to  gather  up,  if  they  can,  the  seed-corn  which  he 
has  scattered.  These  words  are  explained  by  Christ  himself;  for  of  this 
parable  we  have  an  authentic  interpretation,  one  that  has  come  from  his 
own  lips ;  and  which  is  important,  as  has  been  observed,  not  merely  in 
its  bearings  on  the  parable  itself,  as  enabling  us  to  feel  that  we  are 
treading  on  .sure  ground,  but  also  as  giving  us  a  key  to  the  explanation 
of  otlier  parables,  instructing  us  how  far  we  may  safely  go  in  the  appli- 
cation of  their  minor  circumstances  :  these  words  are  thus  explained  : — 
"  Wlien  any  one  licarcth  tJic  tvord  of  the  kingdom  and  under atandeth  it 
not,  then  cotncth  the  toickcd  one,  and  calchcth  aicay  that  which  ivas  soivn 
in  his  Jieart."  St.  Luke  brings  out  Satan  yet  more  distinctly  as  the 
adversary  and  hinderer  of  the  kingdom  of  God  (of  which  there  will  be 
fuller  opportunity  of  speaking  in  the  following  parable),  by  adding  th^ 
reason  why  he  snatches  the  word  away, — "  lest  they  shoidd  believe  and 
he  savedy  The  words  which  St.  Matthew  alone  records,  "  a7id  under- 
standeth  it  not"  are  very  important  for  the  comprehending  of  what  this 
first  state  of  mind  and  heart  is,  in  which  the  word  of  God  is  unproduc- 
tive of  any,  even  transitory,  effect.  The  man  understands  it  not ;  he 
does  not  recognize  himself  as  standing  in  any  relation  to  the  word  which 
he  hears,  or  to  the  kingdom  of  grace  which  that  word  proclaims.  All 
that  speaks  of  man's  connection  with  a  higher  invisible  world,  all  that 
speaks  of  sin,  of  redemption,  of  holiness,  is  unintelligible  to  him,  and 
wholly  without  significance.  But  how  has  he  come  to  this  state?  He 
has  brought  himself  to  it ;  he  has  exposed  his  heart  as  a  common  road 
to  every  evil  influence  of  the  world,  till  it  has  become  hard  as  a  pave- 
ment*— till  he  has  laid  waste  the  very  soil  in  which  the  word  of  God 
should  have  taken  root ;  and  he  has  not  submitted  it  to  the  ploughshare 
of  the  law,  which  would  have  broken  it ;  which,  if  he  had  suffered  it  to 
do  the  work  whicli  God  appointed  it  to  do,  would  have  gone  before,  pre- 
paring that  soil  to  receive  the  seed  of  the  Gospel.  But  what  renders  his 
case  the  more  hopeless,  and  takes  away  even  a  possibility  of  the  word 
germinating  there  is,  that  besides  the  evil  condition  of  the  soil,  there  is 
also  One  watching  to  take  advantage  of  that  evil  condition,  to  use  every 
weapon  that  man  puts  into  his  hands,  against  man's  salvation  ;  and  he, 
lest  by  possibility  sucli  a  hearer  might  believe  and  be  saved,  sends  his 
ministers  in'  tlie  shape  of  evil  thoughts,  worldly  desires,  carnal  lusts, 
and  by  their  helj),  as  St.  Mark  records  it,  ^'•immediately  takctJiaioay  tlie 
tvord  tJuit  ivas  soicti  in  their  /ledrts."  And  the  Lord  concludes,  "  This 
is  he  that  receiveth  seed  by  the  icay-side." 

*  H.  (Ic  Sto  Victoro  {Annolt.  in  Matth.) :  Via  est  cor  fVequenti  malarum  cogita- 
tioncm  traiisitti  attritum  et  arefactum.  Corn,  a  Lap :  Via  est  trita  sccularis  et 
licentioris  vitae  coiisnetudo. 


62  THE  S0"\7ER. 

Other  of  the  seed,  which  the  sower  scattered",  appeared  to  have  at 
first,  but  in  the  end  had  not  truly  any  better  success.  For  we  read, 
"  Some  fell  upon  stony  places^  where  they  had  7iot  much  earth;  and  forth- 
with they  sprung  up^  because  tliey  had  no  deepness  of  earthy  atid  when 
tJie  sun  teas  up*  tJicy  xoere  scordicd^  and  because  tJiey  had  no  root  they 
witluercd  aivay?''  The  "  stony  places^''  here  are  to  be  explained  by  the 
"  roc'X;"  in  St.  Luke,  and  it  is  important,  for  the  right  understanding  of 
the  parable,  that  the  words  in  St.  Matthew,  or  rather  in  our  translation 
of  them  (for  "  rocky  places," — as  indeed  the  Rhemish  version  has  it, — 
would  have  avoided  the  possibility  of  any  mistake),  do  not  lead  us 
astray.  A  soil  mingled  with  stones  is  not  meant ;  for  these,  however 
numerous  or  large,  would  not  certainly  hinder  the  roots  from  striking 
deeply  downward,  as  those  roots,  with  the  instinct  which  they  possess, 
would  feel  and  find  their  way,  penetrating  between  the  interstices  of  the 
stones,  and  would  so  reach  the  moisture  below.  But  what  is  meant  is 
ground,  where  a  thin  superficial  coating  of  mould  covered  the  surface  of 
a  rock,  which  stretched  below  it  and  presented  an  impassable  barrier, 
rendering  it  wholly  impossible  that  the  roots  should  penetrate  beyond  a 
certain  depth,  or  draw  up  any  supplies  of  nourishment  from  beneath.f 
While  the  seed  had  not  fallen  into  deep  earth,  therefore  the  plant  the 
sooner  appeared  above  the  surface ;  and  while  the  rock  below  hindered 
it  from  striking  deeply  downward,  it  put  forth  its  energies  the  more  lux- 
uriantly in  the  stalk.  It  sprung  up  without  delay,  but  was  not  rooted 
in  that  deep  moist  soil  which  would  have  enabled  it  to  resist  the  scorch- 
ing heat  of  the  sun,  and  being  smitten  by  that,  withered  and  died. 

Concerning  the  signification  of  this  part  of  the  parable  we  learn, 
"  Tliey  on  the  rock  are  they^  icliich,  ivlien  tJiey  hear^  receive  the  icord  vMh 
joy  ;  and  these  have  no  root,  ivhich  for  a  ivhile  believe,  and  in  thne  of 
temptation  fall  away."  Though  the  issue  is  the  same  in  this  case  as  in 
the  last,  the  promise  is  very  diflPerent ;  so  far  from  the  heart  of  this  man- 
ner of  hearer  appearing  irreceptive  of  the  truth,  the  good  news  of  the 
kingdom  is  received  at  once,  and  with  gladness.^     But  alas  !  the  joy 

*  'AvaTfWetv  once  occurs  transitively  in  the  New  Testament,  Matt.  v.  45 ;  so 
Gen.  ill.  18,  Isai.  xlv.  8  (lxx).  It  is  especially  used,  as  in  this  passage,  of  the 
rising  of  the  sun  or  stars,  Num.  xxiv.  17  ;  Isai.  Ix.  1 ;  Mai.  iv.  2 ;  but  also  of  the 
springing  up  of  plants  from  the  earth,  Gen.  xix.  25  ;  Isai.  xliv.  4  ;  Ezek.  xvii.  6  ; 
Ps.  xci.  7 ;  and  so,  i^avfTiL\e,  in  this  present  parable.  In  either  sense  the  title 
avaroX^  belongs  to  Christ,  and  has  been  applied  to  him  in  both ;  as  he  is  The 
Branch  ('AcaToA.^,  Zech.  vi.  12.  lxx.),  and  as  he  is  the  Day-spring  (Luke  i.  78). 

t  Bengel :  Non  innuunter  lapides  sparsim  in  agro  jacentcs,  sed  petra  sive  saxum 
continuum,  sub  terrfe  superficie  tcmii. 

\  Cocccius  :  Statim  laetari  est  malum  signum,  quia  non  potest  non  verbum  Dei, 
si  rectfe  percipiatur,  in  homine  operari  dispHcentiam  sui,  aycovlav,  angustias,  cor 
contritum,  spiritum  fractum.  famem  ac  sitim,  denique  luctum,  ut  Servator  docuit. 
Matt.  V. 


THE  SOWER.  63 

thus  suddenly  conceived  is  not,  as  the  sequel  too  surely  proves,  a  joy 
springing  up  from  the  contemplation  of  the  greatness  of  the  benefit,  even 
after  all  the  counterbalancing  costs  and  hazards  and  sacrifices  are  taken 
into  account,  but  a  joy  arising  from  an  overlooking  and  leaving  out  of 
calculation  those  costs  and  hazards — which  circumstance  fatally  differ- 
ences the  joy  of  this  class  of  hearers  from  that  of  the  finder  of  the  trea- 
sure (Matt.  xiii.  44),  who  for  the  joy  thereof,  went  and  sold  all  that  lie 
had^  that  he  might  purchase  the  field  which  contained  the  treasure — that 
is,  was  willing  to  deny  himself  all  things,  and  to  suffer  all  things,  that 
he  miglit  win  Christ.  We  have  rather  here  a  state  of  mind  not  stub- 
bornly repelling  the  truth,  but  wofuUy  lacking  in  all  deeper  earnestness," 
such  as  that  of  the  great  multitudes  that  went  with  Jesus,  not  consider- 
ing what  his  di.sciplesliip  involved, — those  multitudes  to  whom  he  turned 
and  told  at  large,  and  in  the  strongest  language,  what  the  conditions  of 
that  discipleship  were  (Luke  xiv.  25-33,)  exhorting  them  beforehand 
that  they  should  count  the  cost.  This  is  exactly  what  the  hearer  here 
described  has  not  done ;  whatever  was  fair  and  beautiful  in  Christianity 
as  it  first  presents  itself,  had  attracted  him — its  sweet  and  comfortable 
promises,*  the  moral  loveliness  of  its  doctrines ;  but  not  its  answer  to 
the  deepest  needs  of  the  human  heart ;  as  neither  when  he  received  the 
word  M'ith  gladness,  had  he  contemplated  the  having  to  endure  hardness 
in  his  warfare  with  sin  and  Satan  and  the  world. — "  So  hath  he  not  root 
in  hwisclf,  but  durcth  for  a  while,  far  tchen  trihnlatioh  or  persecution 
ariscth  because  of  the  ivord.  by  and  by  lie  is  offended!'''  It  is  not  here,  as 
in  the  last  case,  that  Satan  can  merely  come  and  take  the  word  out  of 
the  heart  without  further  trouble ;  that  word  has  found  some  place  there, 
and  it  needs  that  he  bring  some  hostile  influences  to  bear  against  it. 
What  he  brings  in  the  present  case  are  outward  or  inward  trials,  these, 
being  compared  to  the  burning  heat  of  the  sun.f  It  is  true,  that  gene- 
rally the  light  and  warmth  of  the  sun  are  used  to  set  forth  the  geniaK 
and  comfortable  workings  of  God's  grace,  as  eminently  Mai.  iv.  2 ;  but 
not  always,  for  see,  beside  the  passage  before  us,  Ps.  cxxi.  6 ;  Isai.  xlix. 
10;  Rev.  vii.  16.  As  that  heat,  had  the  plant  been  rooted  deeply 
enough,  would  have  furthered  its  growth,  and  hastened  its  ripening,  fit- 
ting it  for  the  sickle  and  the  barn — so  these  tribulations  would  have  fur- 
thered the  growth  in  grace  of  the  true  Christian,  and  ripened  him  for 
heaven.     But  as  the  heat  scorches  the  blade  which  has  no  deepness  of 

*  Bc'fle :  Ilia  sunt  prjEcordia  quae  dulcedine  tantum  audit!  .sermonis  ac  promissis 
cajlcstibus  ad  horam  deloctantur. 

t  It  was  with  the  rising  of  the  sun,  that  the  Kavamv,  the  hot  de.sort  wind,  began 
commonly  to  blow,  the  deadly  efTccts  of  which  on  all  vegetation  arc  often  al- 
luded to.  (Jon.  iv.  8:  Jam.  i.  11.)  Plants  thus  smitten  with  the  heat  are  called 
torrefacta,  TjKiovfitva. 


64  THE  SOWER. 

earth,  and  has  sprung  tip  on  a  shallow  ground,  so  the  troubles  and  afflic- 
tions which  would  have  strengthened  a  true  faith,  cause  a  faith  which 
was  merely  temporary  to  fail.*  When  these  afflictions  for  the  word's 
sake  arrive  he  is  offended,  as  though  some  strange  thing  had  happened 
to  him  :t  for  then  are  the  times  of  sifting,;}:  and  of  winnowing;  and  then 
too  every  one  that  has  no  root,  or  as  St.  Matthew  describes  it,  no  root  in 
himself,  no  inward  root,i^  falls  away. 

The  having  that  inward  root  here  answers  to  the  having  a  foundation 
on  the  rock  Matt.  vii.  25,  to  the  having  oil  in  the  vessels  elsewhere. 
(Matt.  XXV.  4.)  And  the  image  itself  is  not  an  unfrequent  one  in 
Scripture.  (Ephes.  iii.  17;  Col.  ii.  7;  Jer.  xvii.  8;  Hos.  ix.  16.)  It 
has  a  peculiar  fitness  and  beauty, — for  as  the  roots  of  a  tree  are  out  of 
sight,  yet  from  them  it  derives  its  firmness  and  stability,  so  upon  the 
hidden  life  of  the  Christian,  that  life  which  is  out  of  the  sight  of  other 
men,  his  firmness  and  stability  depend ;  and  as  it  is  through  the  hidden 
roots  that  the  nourishment  is  drawn  up  to  the  stem  and  branches,  and 
the  leaf  continues  green,  and  the  tree  does  not  cease  from  bearing  fruit, 
even  so  in  the  Christian's  hidden  life,  that  life  which  "  is  hid  with  Christ 
in  Grod,"  lie  the  sources  of  his  strength  and  of  his  spiritual  prosperity. 
Such  a  root  in  himself  had  Peter,  who,  when  many  others  were  offended 
and  drew  back,  exclaimed,  "  To  whom  shall  we  go  1  thou  hast  the  words 
of  etei'ual  life."  (John  vi.  68.)  This  faith  that  Christ  and  no  other  had 
the  words  of  eternal  life  and  blessedness,  was  what  constituted  his  root, 
causing  him  to  stand  firm  when  so  many  fell  away.  So  again  when  the 
Hebrew  Christians  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their  goods,  knowing  in 
themselves  that  they  had  "  in  heaven  a  better  and  an  enduring  substance'' 
(Heb.  x.  34),  this  knowledge,  this  faith  concerning  their  unseen  inherit- 
ance, was  the  root  which  enabled  them  joyfully  to  take  that  loss,  and  not 
to  draw  back  unto  perdition,  as  so  many  had  done.  Compare  2  Cor.  iv. 
17,  18,  where  again  the  faith  in  the  unseen  eternal  things  is  the  root. 

*  Augustine  is  particularly  ricli  in  striking  sayings  on  the  different  effects 
which  tribulations  will  have  on  those  that  are  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  faith, 
and  those  that  are  otherwise.  Thus  {E/iarr.  in  Ps.  xxi.)  speaking  of  the  furnace 
of  affliction  :  Ibi  est  aurum,  ibi  est  palea,  ibi  ignis  in  angusto  operatur.  Ignis  ille 
non  est  diversus,  et  diversa  agit,  paleam  in  cinerem  vertit,  auro  sordes  tollit.  See 
for  the  same  image  Chrysostom,  Ad  Pop.  Antioch.,  Horn.  4,  1. 

f  See  Job  viil.  11,  12.  and  Umbreit's  Note. 

:j:  The  very  word  "  tribulatioii"  with  which  we  have  rendered  the  bxl^is  of  the 
original,  rests  upon  this  image — tribulatio  from  tribulum,  the  threshing-roller,  and 
thus  used  to  signify  those  afflictive  processes  by  which  in  the  moral  discipline  of 
men  God  separates  their  good  from  their  evil,  their  wheat  from  their  chaff. 

^  It  is  with  allusion  to  this  passage  no  doubt  that  men  of  faith  are  called  in  the 
Greek  Fathers,  ^a^vp'pi^oi,  itoXvp'pl^oi.  Compare  with  this  division  of  the  parable, 
the  Shep/icrd  of  Hermas,  1.  3,  sim.  9,  c.  21. 


THE  SOTVER.  65 

which,  as  St.  Paul  declares,  enables  him  to  count  the  present  affliction 
light,  and  to  endure  to  the  end.  Demas,  on  the  other  hand,  lacked  that 
root.  It  might  at  first  sight  seem  as  if  he  would  be  more  correctly 
ranged  under  the  third  class  of  hearers ;  since  he  forsook  Paul,  "having 
loA'cd  this  present  world."  But  when  we  examine  more  closely  what  was 
Paul's  condition  at  Rome  at  the  moment  when  Demas  left  him,  we  find 
it  to  have  been  one  of  great  outward  trial  and  danger  ;  so  that  it  would 
seem  more  probable  that  the  immediate  cause  of  his  so  going  back,  was 
the  tribulation  which  came  for  the  word's  sake.* 

But  thirdly — of  the  seed  which  the  sower  cast,  "  some  fell  among 
tlwrns^  and  the  thorns  sprung  tip  mid  chohed  it"  or  as  Wiclif  has, 
"  strangled  it,"t  so  that,  as  St.  Mark  adds,  '•  it  yielded  no  fruit}^  It  is 
not  that  this  seed  fell  so  much  among  thorns  that  were  full  grown,  as  in 
ground  where  the  roots  of  these  had  not  been  carefully  extirpated,  in 
ground  which  had  not  been  thoroughly  purged  and  cleansed ;  otherwise 
it  could  not  be  said  in  the  words  of  Luke,  "  that  the  thorns  sprang  up 
xcith  it.'''  They  grew  together ;  only  the  thorns  overtopped  the  good 
seed,  shut  them  out  from  the  air  and  light,  drew  away  from  their  roots 
the  moisture  and  richness  of  earth,  which  should  have  nourished  them, 
and  thus  they  pined  and  dwindled  in  the  shade.  They  grew  dwarfed 
and  stunted,  for  the  best  of  the  soil  did  not  feed  them — forming  indeed 
a  blade,  but  unable  to  form  a  full  corn  in  the  ear,  bringing  no  fruit 
to  perfection.  It  is  not  here,  as  in  the  first  case,  that  there  was  no  soil, 
or  none  deserving  the  name — nor  yet  as  in  the  second  case,  that  there 
was  a  poor  or  shallow  soil.  Hei-e  there  was  no  lack  of  soil,  it  might  be 
good  soil :  but  what  was  deficient  was  a  careful  husbandry,  a  diligent 
eradication  of  the  mischievous  growths,  which,  unless  extirpated,  would 
oppress  and  strangle  whatever  sprung  up  side  by  side  with  them. 

Of  this  part  of  the  parable  we  have  the  following  explanation — "  He 
also  that  received  seed  among  the  tJiorns,  is  he  that  heareth  the  word,  and 
the  cares\  of  this  loorld  and  the  deceitful ness  of  riclics  [and  tJie  lusts  of 
other  things^  e?itering  in  (]\Iark  iv.  19)],  choice  tlie  xcmxl,  and  he  hccomcth 
unfruitful:-  or,  as  St.  Luke  gives  it,  'Hhey  bring  no  fruit  to  p)erfectiony\\ 

*  Sec  Bcrnarrt  {Dc  Offic.  Epi.st.,  c.  4,  ^  11,  15),  for  an  interesting  discussion, 
whether  the  faith  of  those  comprehended  under  this  second  head  was,  so  long  as  it 
lasted,  real  or  not, — in  fact,  on  the  question  whether  it  be  possible  to  fall  from 
grace  given. 

t  Columella :  Angentem  herbam.  The  image  of  an  evil  growth  strangling  a 
nobler,  is  jjcrmanently  embodied  in  our  language  in  the  name  cockti,  given  to  a 
weed  well  kno^vn  in  our  fields — derived  from  the  Anglo-Saxon,  ceocan,  to  choke. 

\  Catullus  :  Sphwsas  Erycina  serens  in  pectore  curas. 

()  'H  irepl  Tu  A.o(Tr<£  i-riStvuia.  Winer  (trra7«7«.  p.  177)  would  rather  translate, 
The  lusts  ahont  other  things  (cupiditates  quae  circa  reli(iua  versantur). 

II  Ou  Tf\eff(popov(ri.  The  word  occurs  only  here  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
5 


\ 


66  THE  SOWER. 

It  is  not  here  as  in  the  first  case,  that  the  word  of  God  is  totally  ineffec- 
tual ;  nor  yet  as  in  the  second  case,  that  after  a  temporary  obedience  to 
the  truth,  there  is  an  evident  falling  away  from  it,  such  as  the  withering 
of  the  stalk  indicates :  the  profession  of  a  spiritual  life  is  retained,  the 
name  to  live  still  remains — but  the  life  and  power  of  religion  is  by 
degrees  eaten  out  and  has  departed.  And  to  what  disastrous  influences 
iare  these  sad  effects  attributed  ?  To  two  things,  the  cares  of  this  world, 
'and  its  pleasures ;  these  are  the  thorns  and  briers  that  strangle  the  life 
of  the  soul.*  It  may  seem  strange  at  first  sight,  that  these  which  appear 
so  opposite  to  one  another,  should  yet  be  linked  together,  and  have  the 
same  evil  consequences  attributed  to  them :  but  the  Lord  does  in  fact 
here  present  to  us  this  earthly  life  on  its  two  sides,  under  its  two  aspects. 
There  is  first,  its  crushing  oppressive  side,  the  poor  man's  toil  how  to 
live  at  all,  to  keep  hunger  and  nakedness  from  the  door,  the  sti-uggle  for 
a  daily  subsistence,  " tlije,  cares  of  this  life"^  which  if  not  met  in  faith, 
hinder  the  thriving  of  the  spiritual  word  in  the  heart.  But  life  has  its 
flattering  as  well  as  its  threatening  side,  its  pleasures  as  well  as  its  cares ; 
and  as  those  who  have  heard  and  received  the  word  of  the  kingdom  with 
gladness,  are  still  exposed  to  be  crushed  by  the  cares  of  life,  so  on  the 
other  hand,  to  be  deceived  by  its  flatteries  and  its  allurements.  In 
neither  case  has  the  world  altogether  lost  its  power,  nor  is  the  old  man 
dead :  for  awhile  he  may  seem  dead,  so  long  as  the  first  joy  on  account 
of  the  treasure  found  endures  ;  but  unless  mortified  in  earnest,  will 
presently  revive  in  all  his  strength  anew.  Unless  the  soil  of  the  heart 
be  diligently  watched,  the  thorns  and  briers,  of  which  it  seemed  a 
thorough  clearance  had  been  made,  will  again  grow  up  apace,  and  choke 

especially  iised  of  a  woman  bringing  her  child  to  the  birth,  or  a  tree  its  fruit  to 
maturity. 

*  See  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  1.  3,  sim.  9,  c.  20,  for  the  emblem  of  the  moun- 
tain covered  with  thorns  and  briers;  and  so  Jer.  iv.  3:  "Break  up  your  fallow 
ground,  and  sow  not  among  thorns."  It  is  evident  that  in  the  great  symbolic  lan- 
guage of  the  outward  world,  these  have  a  peculiar  fitness  for  the  ex]>ression  of 
influences  liostilc  to  the  truth.  They  are  themselves  the  consequences  and  evi- 
dences of  sin,  of  a  curse  which  has  passed  on  from  man  to  the  eai-th  which  he  inha- 
bits (Gen.  iii.  17),  till  that  earth  had  none  other  but  a  thurn-cvovm  to  yield  to  its 
Lord.  It  is  a  sign  of  the  deep  fitness  of  this  image  that  others  have  been  led  to 
select  it,  for  the  setting  forth  of  the  same  truth.  Thus  the  Pythagorean  Lysis 
Baur's  Apnllonius,  p.  192),  irvKival  KoX  \dcnai  \6xi^at  wepl  tus  (ppsvas  (cal  rav  KapSiau 
iretpvKavTi  rwv  fii]  Ko^apus  rols  jxa^fjLaffiv  opyiaaSrivTwv,  irav  rh  a/if pov  Kol  Trpaov  Kal 
\oytffTiKhv  tSj  \pvxa.i  iiria-Kid(ovffai,  Koi  KwKvovaai  ivpocpavois  /uej/  av^ri^rjfxep  koI  irpo- 
Kii^ai  rb  vor)r'iKOV. 

t  Mfpiuva  from  /ue'pjs,  that  which  draws  the  heart  different  ways.  See  Hos.  x  2 : 
"  Their  heart  is  divided,"  i.  c.  between  God  and  the  world  ;  such  a  heart  consti- 
tutes the  a.v))p  5(\)/uxoy.  (Jam.  i.  8.)  See  Passow,  s.  v.  ixipifiva,  who  quotes  Terence: 
Curaj  animum  divors6  trahunt. 


THE  SOWER.  67 

the  good  seed.*  While  that  which  God  promises  is  felt  to  be  good,  but 
also  what  the  world  promises  is  felt  to  be  good  also,  and  a  good  of  the 
same  kind,  instead  of  a  good  merely  and  altogether  subordinate  to  the 
other,  there  will  be  an  attempt  made  to  combine  the  service  of  the  two, 
to  serve  God  and  mammon  ;  but  the  attempt  will  be  in  vain — they  who 
make  it  will  bring  no  fruit  to  perfection,  will  fail  to  bring  forth  those 
perfect  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  which  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  word  of  God 
to  produce  in  them.  The  Saviour  warns  us  against  the  danger  which 
proves  fatal  to  those  in  this  third  condition  of  heart  and  mind,  when  he 
says,  "  Take  heed  to  j'ourselves,  lest  at  any  time  your  hearts  be  over- 
charged with  surfeiting  and  drunkenness,  and  cares  of  this  life,  and  so 
that  day  come  upon  you  unawares  "  (Luke  xxi.  34) :  and  St.  Paul  when  i 
he  writes,  "  They  that  will  be  rich,  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and 
into  many  foollsli  and  hurtful  lusts,  which  drown  men  in  destruction  and 
perdition."     (1  Tim.  vi.  9;  see  Matt.  vi.  25— 34.)t 

But  it  is  not  all  the  seed  which  thus  sooner  or  later  perishes.  The 
spiritual  husbandman  is  to  sow  in  hope,  knowing  that  with  the  blessing 
of  the  Lord,  he  will  not  always  sow  in  vain,  that  a  part  will  prosper.^ 
"  Other  fell  into  good  ground^  ami  brought  forth  fruity  some  a  hundred 

*  Thus  with  a  deep  heart-knowledge  Thauler  {Dom.  22  post.  TVin.,  Ser7n.  2): 
Nostis  ipsi.  quod  duni  ager  sivc  hortus  k  loliis  ac  zizaniis  expurgatur.  lit  plurimum 
radices  qua;dam  zizaniorum  in  terrae  visceribus  maneant,  ita  tamen  ut  minime  de- 
prehendantur.  Interim  humus  diligentur  conscritur  atque  sarritur :  ubi  dum  bona 
seraina  oriri  deberent,  simul  zizania  ex  radicibus  terrae  fixis  succrescunt,  et  fru- 
mentum  aliasque  herbas  et  semina  bona  destnient  opprimentque.  Sic  ergo  et  in 
present!  loco  radices  dico,  pravos  quosque  defectus  et  vitia  in  fundo  latentia.  et 
necdum  mortificata :  qua;  per  confessionem  et  pcenitentiam,  ut  ita  dicam,  sarrita 
quidcm  sunt,  et  per  bona  excrcitia  exarata :  attamen  vitiosanim  radicum  malfe 
inclinationes  seu  propcnsioncs.  puta  vel  superbias  vel  luxuriae,  irae  vel  invidife,  seu 
odii  hisque  similium  in  ip.so  fundo  relictae  sunt,  quae  postea  exoriiintur,  et  ubi  di- 
vina,  bcata.  virtuosa.  laudabilis  vita  ex  homine  gcrminare,  succrescere,  oriri  debe- 
ret,  haec  pessima  noxiarum  radicum  germina  prodeunt,  fructusque  illius  ac  religio- 
sam  devotamque  dispergunt.  cxtinguunt,  obruunt  vitam. 

t  Ovid's  description  {Met  amor  ph.,  1.  5,  v.  463-466.)  of  the  things  which  hinder 
the  returns  of  a  harvest  exactly  include,  with  a  few  slight  additions,  those  which 
our  Lord  has  given  ;  though  the  order  is  a  little  different : 

El  modb  sol  nimiits,  nimius  modb  corripit  imber; 
Sideraque  venlique  nocent ;  avidceque  volucres 
Semina  jacta  legunt ;  lolium  tribuliijue  fatigant 
Triticeas  messes,  el  inexpugnabile  gramen. 

X  Thus  the  author  of  a  sermon  Augustini  Opp.,  v.  6,  p.  597,  Bened.  ed. :  Non 
ergo  nos,  dilectis.simi.  aut  timor  spinarum.  aut  saxa  petrarum,  aut  durissima  via 
pertcrreat :  dum  tamen  seminantes  verbum  Dei  ad  terram  bonam  tandem  a)i(iuando 
pervenire  possimus.  Accipe  verbum  Dei,  omnis  ager,  omnis  homo,  siye  storilis. 
sive  foedus.  Ego  spargam,  tu  vide  quomodo  accipias  :  ego  erogem,  tu  vidi  quales 
fructus  reddas. 


eg  THE  SOWEB. 

fohl  some  sixty  fold,  some  thirty  fold:'  St.  Luke  says  simply,  "  ami 
bare  fruit  a  hundred  foldr  leaving  out  the  two  lesser  proportions  of 
return  which  St.  Mark  gives ;  who,  however,  reverses  the  order  of  the 
three,  beginning  from  the  smallest  return,  and  ascending  to  the  highest. 
The  return  of  a  hundred  for  one  is  not  unheard  of  in  the  East,  though 
always  mentioned  as  something  extraordinary ;  thus  it  is  said  of  Isaac, 
that  he  sowed,  •'  and  received  in  the  same  year  a  hundred  fold,  and  the 
Lord  blessed  him"  (Gen.  xxvi.  12);  and  other  examples  of  the  same 
kind  are  not  wanting.* 

"We  learn  that  ■'■lie  that  recdveth  seed  into  the  good  ground,  is  he  that 
heareth  tlie  loord  and  %mderstandeth  it,  lohich  also  beareth  fruit,  and 
bringeth  forth  some  a  hundred  fold,  some  sixty,  and  some  thirty',''  or  with 
the  important  variation  of  St.  Luke,  "  that  on  the  good  ground  are  t.liey, 
who  in  an  Jionest  and  good  heart  having  Jieard  the  ward  keep  it,\  and 
h-ing  forth  fruit  with  patience  " — important,  because  in  it  comes  dis- 
tinctly forward  a  difficulty,  which  equally  existed  in  the  parable  as 
recoi'ded  by  the  other  Evangelists,  but  did  not  come  forward  with  an 
equal  distinctness,  and  yet  on  the  right  solution  of  which  a  successful 
interpretation  must  altogether  depend.  What  is  this  -^honest  and  good 
heart  ?"  how  can  any  heart  be  called  good,  before  the  Word  and  Spirit 
have  made  it  so  1 — and  yet  here .  the  seed  finds  a  good  soil,  does  not 
make  it.  The  same  question  recurs,  when  the  Lord  says,  "  He  that  is 
of  God,  heareth  God's  words"  (John  viii.  41);  and  again,  "Every  one 
that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice  "  (John  xviii.  37).  But  who  in 
this  sinful  world  can  be  called  "  of  the  truth,"  for  is  it  not  the  universal 
doctrine  of  the  Bible  that  men  become  "  of  the  truth  "  through  hearing 
Christ's  words,  not  that  they  hear  his  words  because  they  are  of  the  truth 
— that  the  heart  is  good,  through  receiving  the  word,  not  that  it  receives 
the  word  because  it  is  good  IX  This  is  certainly  the  scriptural  doctrine, 
but  at  the  same  time  those  passages  from  St.  John,  as  well  as  this  present 

*  Herodotus  mentions  that  two  hundred  fold  was  a  common  return  in  the  plain 
of  Babylon,  and  sometimes  three  ;  and  Niebuhr  {Beschreib.  v.  Arab.,  p.  153),  men- 
tions a  species  of  maize  that  returns  four  hundred  fold :  "Wetstein  (in  loo.)  has 
collected  many  examples  from  antiquity  of  returns  as  great  as,  or  far  greater  than, 
that  mentioned  in  the  text. 

t  Karexovffi.  So  John  viii.  51,  rripe'iv  rhv  \6yov,  to  hold  fast  the  word.  St. 
Mark  also  has  an  instructive  word,  irapaSfxofrai,  they  receive  it  into  their  inward 
life  and  soul. 

X  Augustine  (,77^  Ev.  Joh.,  Tract.  12),  puts  the  difficulty  and  solves  it  in  this 
manner  :  Quid  est  hoc  1  quorum  enim  erant  bona  opera  1  Nonne  venisti  ut  justi- 
fices  impios  1 — He  replies  :  Initium  operum  bonorura  confessio  est  operum  malo- 
rum.  Facis  veritatcra,  et  venis  ad  lucem.  Quid  est,  fiicis  veritatem  1  non  te  pal- 
pas,  non  tibi  blandiris,  non  tibi  adularis,  non  dicis,  Justus  sum,  ciim  sis  iniquus  ; 
et  incipis  facere  veritatem. 


THE  SOWER.  69 

parable,  and  much  more  also  in  the  Scripture,  bear  witness  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  conditions  of  heart  in  which  the  truth  finds  readier 
entrance  than  in  others.  "  Being  of  the  truth," — "  doing  truth," — 
having  the  soil  of  '■'■an  Jionest  and  good  heart." — all  signify  the  same 
thing  Inasmuch  as  they  are  anterior  to  hearing  God's  words — coming  to 
the  light — bringing  forth  fruit — they  cannot  signify  a  state  of  mind  and 
heart  in  which  the  truth  is  positive  and  realized,  but  tliey  indicate  one 
in  which  there  is  a  receptivity  for  the  truth.  No  heart  can  be  said  to 
be  absolutely  a  good  soil,  as  none  is  good  save  God  only.  And  yet  the 
Scripture  speaks  often  of  good  men  ;  even  so  comparatively  it  may  be 
said  of  some  hearts,  that  they  are  a  soil  fitter  for  receiving  the  seed  of 
everlasting  life  than  others.  Thus  the  "  son  of  peace  "  will  alone  receive 
the  message  of  peace  (Luke  x.  6),  while  yet  not  any  thing  except  the 
reception  of  that  message  will  make  him  truly  a  son  of  peace.  He  was 
before  indeed  a  latent  son  of  peace,  but  it  is  the  Gospel  which  first 
makes  actual  that  which  was  hitherto  only  potential.  So  that  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  may  be  likened  to  the  scattering  of  sparks: 
where  they  find  tinder,  there  they  fasten,  and  kindle  into  a  flame ;  or  to 
a  lodestone  thrust  in  among  the  world's  rubbish,  attracting  to  itself  all 
particles  of  true  metal,  which  yet  but  for  this  would  never  and  could 
never  have  extricated  themselves  from  the  surrounding  heap. 

Not  otherwise  among  those  to  whom  the  word  of  Christ,  as  actually 
preached  by  himself,  came,  there  were  two  divisions  of  men,  and  the  same 
will  always  subsist  in  the  world.  There  were  first  the  false-hearted,  who 
called  evil  good  and  good  evil — who  loved  their  darkness  and  hated  the 
light  that  would  make  that  darkness  manifest,  and  refused  to  walk  in 
that  light  of  the  Lord  even  when  it  shone  round  about  them,  drawing 
back  further  into  their  own  darkness — self-excusers  and  self-justifiers, 
such  as  were  for  the  most  part  the  Scribes  and  the  Pharisees,  with 
whom  Christ  came  in  contact.  But  there  were  also  others,  sinners  as 
well,  often  as  regards  actual  transgression  of  positive  law  much  greater 
sinners  than  those  first,  but  who  yet  acknowledged  their  evil — had  no 
wish  to  alter  the  everlasting  relations  between  right  and  wrong — who, 
when  the  light  appeared,  did  not  refuse  to  be  drawn  to  it,  even  though 
they  knew  that  it  would  condemn  their  darkness — that  it  would  require 
an  entire  remodelling  of  their  lives  and  hearts :  such  were  the  Matthews 
and  the  Zacchasuses,  all  who  confessed  tlieir  deeds  justifying  God.  Not 
that  I  would  prefer  to  instance  these  as  examples  of  the  good  and  honest 
heart,  except  in  so  far  as  it  is  needful  to  guard  against  a  Pelagian  abuse 
of  the  phrase,  and  to  show  how  the  Lord's  language  here  does  not  con- 
demn even  great  and  grievous  sinners  to  an  incapacity  for  receiving  the 
word  of  life.  Nathanael  would  be  a  yet  more  perfect  specimen  of  the 
class  here  alluded  to — "  the  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  was  no  guile  " — 


70  THE  SOWER. 

which  was  saying  in  other  words,  the  man  with  the  soil  of  an  honest  and 
good  heart,  fitted  for  receiving  and  nourishing  the  word  of  everlasting 
life,  and  bringing  forth  fruit  with  patience ; — one  of  a  simple,  truthful, 
and  earnest  nature ;  who  had  been  faithful  to  the  light  which  he  had, 
diligent  in  the  performance  of  the  duties  which  he  knew,  who  had  not 
been  resisting  God's  preparation  for  imparting  to  him  his  last  and  best 
gift,  even  the  knowledge  of  his  Son.  For  we  must  keep  ever  in  mind 
that  the  good  soil  comes  as  much  from  God,  as  the  seed  which  is  to  find 
there  its  home.  The  law  and  the  preaching  of  repentance,  God's  secret 
and  preventing  grace,  run  before  the  preaching  of  the  word  of  the  king- 
dom ;  and  thus  when  that  word  comes,  it  finds  some  with  greater  readiness 
for  receiving  it.  as  a  word  of  eternal  life,  than  others. 

"When  the  different  measures  of  prosperity  are  given, — that  the  seed 
brought  forth  in  some  a  hundred-fold,  in  some  sixty,  and  in  some  thirty, 
it  seems  difficult  to  determine  whether  these  indicate  different  degrees 
of  fidelity  in  those  that  receive  the  word,  according  to  which  they  bring 
forth  fruit  unto  God  more  or  less  abundantly,  or  rather  different  spheres 
of  action  more  or  less  wide,  which  they  are  appointed  to  occupy,  as  to 
one  servant  were  given  five  talents,  to  another  two ;  in  which  instance 
the  diligence  and  fidelity  appear  to  have  been  equal,  and  the  meed  of 
praise  the  same,  since  each  gained  in  proportion  to  the  talents  committed 
to  him,  though  these  talents  were  many  more  in  one  case  than  in  the 
other: — I  should  suppose,  however,  the  former.*  The  words  which  St. 
Luke  records  (ver.  18),  "  Take  heed  therefore  hoiv  ye  hear,  for  ivhos.oever 
hath  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  ichosoever  hath  not  from  him  shall  be 
taken  even  that  ivhich  lie  seemeth  to  have'''  (see  also  Mark  iv.  23),  are 
very  important  for  the  avoiding  a  misunderstanding  of  our  parable, 
which  else  might  easily  have  arisen.  The  disciples  might  have  been  in 
danger  of  supposing  that  these  four  conditions  of  heart,  in  which  the 
word  found  its  hearers,  were  permanent,  immutable,  and  definitively 
fixed  ;  and  therefore  that  in  one  heart  the  word  must  flourish,  in  another 
that  it  could  never  germinate  at  all,  in  others  that  it  could  only  prosper 
for  a  little  while.  Now  the  warning,  "  Take  heed  how  ye  liear^''  obviates 
the  possibility  of  such  a  mistake,  for  it  tells  us  that,  according  as  the 
word  is  heard  and  received,  will  its  success  be — that  while  it  is  indeed 
true,  that  all  which  has  gone  before  in  a  man's  life  will  greatly  influence 
the  manner  of  liis  reception   of  that  word,  for  every  event  will  have 

*  So  IrcnaBUS  (Coti.  Hccr.,  1.  5.  c.  39,  %T)  must  have  understood  it,  and  Cyprian 
{Ef.  69) :  Eadcm  gratia  spiritualis  qufe  asqualiter  in  baptismo  a,  credentibus  sumi- 
tur.  in  convcrsatione  atque  actu  nostro  postmodum  vel  minuitur  vel  augetur.  ut  in 
Evangelic)  Dominicum  .semen  sequaliter  seminatur,  sed  pro  varietate  terrse  aliuA 
absuniitur.  aliud  in  multiformem  copiam  vel  tricesimi,  vel  sexagesimi,  vel  cente- 
simi  numeri  fructu  exuberante  cumulatur. 


THE  SOWER.  71 

tended  either  to  the  improving  or  deteriorating  the  soil  of  his  heart,  and 
will  therefore  render  it  more  or  less  probable  that  the  seed  of  God's  word 
will  prosper  there,  yet  it  lies  in  him  now  to  take  heed  how  he  hears,  and 
through  this  taking  heed  to  insure,  with  God's  blessing,  that  it  shall 
come  to  a  successful  issue.     (Compare  Jam.  i.  21.) 

For  while  this  is  true,  and  the  thought  is  a  solemn  one,  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  laying  waste  the  very  soil  in  which  the  seed  of  eternal 
life  should  have  taken  root — that  every  act  of  sin,  of  unfaithfulness  to 
the  light  within  us,  is,  as  it  were,  a  treading  of  the  ground  into  more 
hardness,  so  that  the  seed  shall  not  sink  in  it,  or  a  wasting  of  the  soil,  so 
that  the  seed  shall  find  no  nutriment  there,  or  a  fitting  it  to  nourish 
thorns  and  briers  more  kindly  than  the  good  seed ;  yet  on  the  other 
hand,  even  for  those  who  have  brought  themselves  into  these  evil  condi- 
tions, a  recovery  is  still,  through  the  grace  of  God,  possible  : — the  hard 
soil  may  again  become  soft — the  shallow  soil  may  become  rich  and  deep 
— and  the  soil  beset  with  thorns  open  and  clear.*  For  the  heavenly 
seed  in  this  differs  from  the  earthly,  that  the  latter  as  it  finds  its  soil,  so 
it  must  use  it,  for  it  cannot  alter  its  nature.  But  the  heavenly  seed,  if 
it  be  acted  upon  by  the  soil  where  it  is  cast,  also  reacts  more  mightily 
upon  it,  softening  it  where  it  is  hard  ( Jer.  xxiii.  29),  deepening  it  where 
it  is  shallow,  cutting  up  and  extirpating  the  roots  of  evil  where  it  is  en- 
cumbered with  these,  and  wherever  it  is  allowed  free  course,  transform- 
ing and  ennobling  each  of  these  inferior  soils,  till  it  has  become  that 
which  man's  heart  was  at  first,  good  ground,  fit  to  afford  nourishment  to 
that  Divine  Word,  that  seed  of  eternal  life.f 

*  So  Augustine  {Serin.  73,  c.  3) :  Mutamini  cum  potestis  ;  dura  aratro  versate, 
de  agro  lapides  projicite,  de  agro  spinas  evellite.  Nolite  habere  durum  cor,  unde 
cit6  verbum  Dei  pereat.  Nolite  habere  tenuem  terram,  ubi  radix  cliaritatis  alta 
non  sedcat.  Nolite  curis  et  cupiditatibus  seculavibus  ofFocare  bonum  semon,  quod 
vobis  spargituplaboribus  nostris.  Etcnim  Dominus  seminat;  sed  nos  oporarii  ejus 
sumus.  Sed  estote  terra  bona.  Cf.  Scrm.,  101,  c.  8;  and  the  author  of  a  sermon, 
August.  Opp.,  V.  6,  p.  697,  Bened.  ed. :  Si  vero  te  terram  infcecundam  aut  spinosam 
vel  siccam  seutis,  recurre  ad  Creatorem  tuum.  Hoc  enim  nunc  agitur,  ut  innoveris, 
ut  foecunderis.  lit  irrigeris  ab  illo  qui  posuit  desertum  in  stagna  aquanim,  ct  ter- 
ram sine  acjuft  in  exitus  aquarum.  (Ps.  cvi.  35-37.) 

•f  As  our  Saviour  in  this  parable,  so  the  Jewish  doctors  divide  the  hearers  of 
the  words  of  wisdom  into  four  classes.  The  best  they  liken  to  a  sponge  that  drinks 
in  all  that  it  receives,  and  again  expresses  it  for  others ;  the  worst  to  a  strainer  which 
allows  all  the  good  wine  to  pass  through  (see  Heb.  ii.  1,  firj  irore  irapa^Pvunev),  and 
retains  only  whatever  of  dregs  is  worthless  and  of  no  account,  or  to  a  sieve  that  lets 
through  the  fine  flour  and  retains  only  the  bran. — Prudentius  (Co?^.  )Sy7«?K.,  1.  2, 
v.  1022)  has  put  this  parable  well  into  verse.     These  arc  a  few  lines : 

Chrislus  .  .  .  dedil  haec  pr-fcepia  colonis  : 
Semina  ciim  sulcis  committilis,  arva  cavete 
Dura  lapillorum  macie,  ne  decidat  illuc 


72  THE  SOWER. 


Quod  seritxir :  primb  quoniam  prasfertile  germen 
Luxuriat :  succo  mox  deficiente,  sub  sestu 
Sideris  igniferi  sitiens  torretur  et  aret. 
Neve  in  spinosos  incurrant  semina  vepres  : 
Aspera  nam  segeteni  surgentem  vincula  texunt, 
Ac  fragiles  calamos  nodis  rubus  arctat  acutis. 
Et  ne  jacta  viee  spargantur  in  aggere  grana : 
Haec  avibus  quia  nuda  patent,  passimque  vorantur, 
Immundisqus  jacent  foeda  ad  ludibria  corvis  .  .  , 
Talis  noetrorum  solertia  centuplicates 
Agrorum  redigit  fructus. 


II. 

THE   TARES. 

Matthew  xiii.  24-30,  and  36^3. 

^'  Anothek  parable  put  he  forth  unto  tlicmP*  Of  this  parable  also,  that 
"  of  the,  tares  of  the  field"  we  have  an  authentic  interpretation  from  the 
lips  of  our  Lord  himself  And  this  is  well :  for  it  is  one,  as  all  students 
of  Church  history  are  aware,  on  the  interpretation  of  which  very  much 
has  turned  before  now.  Allusion  to  it  occurs  at  every  turn  of  the  con- 
troversy which  the  Church  had  to  maintain  with  the  Donatists ;  and  the 
whole  exposition  of  it  will  need  to  be  carried  on  with  reference  to  dis- 
putes whiclj,  though  seemingly  gone  by,  yet  are  not  in  fact  out  of  date, 
since  in  one  shape  or  another  they  continually  re-appear  in  the  progress 
of  the  Church's  development,  and  in  every  heart  of  man.  To  these  dis- 
putes we  shall  presently  arrive. — "  The  kingdom  of  Jieavcn  is  likened 
unto  a  man  that  soiced  good  seed  in  his  fcld.'"  From  our  Lord's  own 
lips  we  learn,  "iiZe  that  sowed  the  good  seed  is  tlie  Son  of  man."  This 
is  the  most  frequent  title  by  which  our  Lord  designates  himself,  though 
it  is  never  given  him  by  any  oth^r.  except  in  a  single  instance  (Acts 
vii.  56).  and  then  it  would  seem  only  to  indicate  that  the  glorified  Sa- 
viour appeared  bodily  to  the  eyes  of  Stephen.  He  was  often  understood, 
in  the  early  Church  and  among  the  Reformers,  by  this  title  to  signify 
nothing  more  than  his  participation  in  the  human  nature ;  while  others 
have  said  that  he  assumed  the  name  as  the  one  by  which  the  hoped-for 
Messiah  was  already  commonly  known  among  the  people.     But  it  is 

*  Tlapf^Kev.  The  word  implies  that  he  set  it  before  them  as  one  would  set 
forth  or  propose  a  riddle,  and  is  u.sed  beciiu.se  the  parable  has  always  something  of 
the  spiritual  enigma,  and  as  such  is  to  call  into  exercise  the  spiritual  sense  of  those 
to  wlioni  it  is  proposed,  that  they  may  discover  its  solution.  (Mark  iv.  34.  i-ireKve. 
he  solved  thera.)  Roaenkranz  {Gcsch.d.  Deuts.  Pocsie  in  Mitlrlall..  p.  481  seq.) 
quotes  from  an  old  German  poem  a  whole  string  of  riddles  proposed  for  solution 
under  the  form  of  parables. 


74  THE  TARES. 

clear  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  name  was  a  strange  one  to  them,  so  that, 
hearing  it,  they  asked,  "  Who  is  this  Son  of  man  ?"  (John  xii.  34.)  The 
popular  name  for  the  Messiah  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  coming,  was 
Son  of  David.  (Matt.  ix.  27;  xii.  23;  xv.  22;  xx.  31,  &c.)  No  doubt 
he  claimed  the  title  (which  was  already  given  him  in  the  Old  Testament, 
Dan.  viii.  13),  inasmuch  as  it  was  he  who  alone  realized  the  idea  of 
man,*  the  second  Adam,  who,  unlike  the  first,  should  maintain  his  po- 
sition as  the  head  and  representative  of  the  race, — the  one  true  and  per- 
fect flower  which  had  ever  unfolded  itself  out  of  the  root  and  stalk  of 
humanity.  And  using  this  title  he  witnessed  against  the  twofold  error 
concerning  his  person  which  has  ever  been  seeking  to  manifest  itself, — 
the  Ebionite,  to  which  the  exclusive  use  of  the  title  "  Son  of  David" 
might  have  led,  and  the  Gnostic,  against  which  the  appellation  "  Son  of 
man"  must  have  been  a  continual  witness. 

At  first  there  might  seem  a  slight  disagreement  between  this  para- 
ble and  the  preceding,  as  though  the  same  symbol  were  used  in  the  two 
places  to  signify  very  diflferent  things  ;  for  here  it  is  explained,  "  TJie 
good  seed  are  tJie  children  of  tlie  Idngdmn^''  there,  "  The  seed  is  the  word 
of  God  ;"  yet  in  reality  there  is  none,  but  only  a  progress  from  that  pa- 
rable to  this.  In  that  the  word  of  God  is  the  instrument  by  which  men 
are  born  anew  and  become  children  of  the  kingdom  (Jam.  i.  18  ;  1  Pet. 
i.  23) ;  that  word  there  is  considered  more  absolutely  in  and  by  itself, 
while  here  it  is  considered  after  it  has  been  received  into  the  heart,  in- 
corporated with  the  man — as  that  which  has  brought  him  into  the  posi- 
tion of  a  child  of  the  kingdom,  and  which  is  now  so  vitally  united  with 
.him,  that  the  two  cannot  any  more  be  considered  asunder.  (Compare 
Jer.  xxxi.  27  ;  Hos.  ii.  23  ;  Zech.  x.  9.)  * 

The  next  words,  "  tlie  field  is  the  tvorld"  at  once  bring  us  into  the 
heart  of  the  controversy  referred  to  already.  Words  few  and  slight,  and 
seemingly  of  little  import,  a  great  <battle  has  been  fought  over  them, 
greater  perhaps  than  over  any  single  phrase  in  the  Scripture,  if  we  ex- 
cept the  consecrating  words  at  the  Holy  Eucharist.  It  is  well  known 
that,  putting  aside  the  merely  personal  question  concerning  the  irregu- 
larity of  certain  ordinations,  the  grounds  on  which  the  Donatists  justi- 
fied their  separation  from  the  Church  Catholic  were  these :  The  idea  of 
the  Church,  they  said,  is  that  of  a  perfectly  holy  body;  holiness  is  not 
merely  one  of  its  essential  predicates,  but  the  essential,  to  which  all 
others  must  be  subordinated,  the  exclusive  note  of  the  Church.  They 
did  not  deny  that  it  was  possible  that  hypocrites  might  lie  concealed  in 
its  bosom,  but  where  the  evidently  ungodly  were  suffered  to  remain  in 
communion  with  it,  not  separated  off  by  the  exercise  of  discipline,  then  it 

*  So  PhUo  calls  the  Logos  6  aX-n^ivhs  ^ySfptaivoi. 


THE  TARES.  76 

forfeited  the  character  of  the  true  Church,  and  the  faithful  were  to  come 
out  from  it;  since  remaining  in  its  communion,  by  the  very  presence  of 
the  others  they  would  themselves  be  defiled.  In  support  of  this  view, 
they  maintained  that  such  passages  as  Isa.  lii.  1,  and  all  other  which 
spoke  of  the  future  freedom  of  the  Church  from  evil,  were  meant  to  be 
applicable  to  it  in  its  present  condition,  and  consequently,  where  they 
were  not  applicable,  there  could  not  be  the  Church.  Here,  as  on  so 
many  other  points,  the  Church  owes  to  Augustine,  not  the  forming  of 
her  doctrine,  for  that  she  can  owe  to  no  man,  but  the  bringing  out  into 
her  clear  consciousness  that  which  hitherto  she  had  implicitly  possessed, 
yet  had  not  worked  out  into  a  perfect  clearness,  even  for  herself  By  him 
she  replied,  not  in  any  way  gainsaying  the  truth  which  the  Donatists 
proclaimed,  that  holiness  must  be  an  essential  predicate  of  the  Church, 
but  only  refusing  to  accept  their  idea  of  that  holiness,  and  showing  how 
in  the  Church,  which  they  had  forsaken,  this  quality  was  to  be  found, 
and  combined  with  other  as  essential  qualities  ; — catholicity,  for  instance, 
to  which  t]t,ey  could  make  no  claim. 

The  Church  Catholic,  he  replied,  despite  all  appearances  to  the  con- 
trary, is  a  holy  body,  for  they  only  are  its  members  who  are  in  true 
and  living  fellowship  with  Christ,  therefore  partakers  of  his  sanctifying 
Spirit.  All  others,  however  they  may  have  the  outward  notes  of  belong- 
ing to  it,  are  in  it,  but  not  of  it :  they  press  upon  Christ,  as  that  throng- 
ing multitude  ;  they  do  not  touch  him,  as  that  believing  woman.  (Luke 
viii.  45.)  There  are  certain  outward  conditions,  without  which  one  can- 
not pertain  to  his  Church,  but  with  which  one  does  not  necessarily  do  so. 
And  they  who  are  thus  in  it  but  not  of  it,  wliether  hypocrites  lying  hid, 
or  open  offenders,  who  from  their  numbers  may  not  without  greater  evils 
ensuing  be  expelled,*  do  not  defile  the  true  members,  so  long  as  these 
share  not  in  their  spirit,  nor  communicate  with  their  evil  deeds.  They 
are  like  the  unclean  animals  in  the  same  ark  as  the  clean,  goats  in  the 

*  Augustine's  view  of  the  extent  to  which  discipline  should  be  enforced,  and 
the  questions  of  prudence  which  should  detcrniine  its  enforcing,  may  bo  judged 
from  the  following  passage.  Having  referred  to  these  parables,  and  to  the  separa- 
tion of  the  sheep  and  goats  (Matt,  xxv.),  he  proceeds  {Ad  Don.  post.  Coll.,  c.  5)  : 
Qiiibus  parabolis  et  figuris  Ecclesia  prajnunciata  est  usijue  ad  finem  SEeculi  bonos 
et  malos  siniul  habitura,  ita  ut  mali  bonis  obesso  non  possint,  cum  vol  ignorantur, 
vel  i)ro  pace  et  tranquillitate  Ecclesia3  tolerantur,  si  eos  prodi  aut  accusari  non 
oportuerit,  aut  aliis  bonis  non  potuerint  demonstrari :  ita  sanfe  ut  nequc  cniendatio. 
nis  vigilantia  quiescat,  corripicndo,  degradando,  excommunicando,  ceteri.squc  coer- 
citionibus  licitis  atque  concessis,  quae  salvft.  uiiitatis  pace  in  Ecclcsift,  quotidie  fiunt, 
caritatc  sorvata,,  .  .  .  ne  fortfe  aut  iiidisciplinata  patientia  foveat  iniciuitatcm,  aut 
impatiens  disciplina  dissipet  unitatem.  This,  among  his  anti-Donatist  treatises  is 
the  best  for  giving  a  notion  of  that  part  of  the  controversy  on  which  this  parable 
specially  bears. 


76  THE  TARES. 

same  pastures  with  the  sheep,  chaff  on  the  same  barn-floor  as  the  grain, 
tares  growing  in  the  same  field  with  the  wheat,  endured  for  a  while,  but 
in  the  end  to  be  separated  ofi",  the  evil  from  the  good. 

The  Donatists  wished  to  make  the  Church  in  its  visible  form  and 
historic  manifestation,  identical  and  co-extensive  with  the  true  Church 
which  the  Lord  knoweth  and  not  man.  Augustine  also  affirmed  the 
identity  of  the  Church  now  existing  with  the  final  and  glorious  Church : 
but  he  denied  that  they  were  co-extensive.  For  now  the  Church  is 
clogged  with  certain  accretions  which  shall  hereafter  be  shown  not  to 
belong,  and  never  to  have  belonged,  to  it :  he  affirmed — not,  as  his  op- 
ponents affirmed  of  him,  two  Churches,  but  two  conditions  of  one  and  the 
same  Church ;  the  present,  in  which  evil  is  endured  in  it, — the  future, 
in  which  it  shall  be  free  from  all  evil ; — not  two  bodies  of  Christ,  but 
one  body,  in  which  now  are  wicked  men,  but  only  as  evil  humors  in 
the  natural  body,  which  in  the  day  of  perfect  health  will  be  expelled  and 
rejected  altogether,  as  never  having  more  than  accidentally  belonged  to 
it ;  and  he  laid  especial  stress  upon  this  fact,  that  the  Lord  himself  had 
not  contemplated  his  Church  in  its  present  state  as  perfectly  free  from 
evil.*  In  proof  he  appealed  to  this  parable  and  that  of  the  Draw-net, — 
that  as  tares  are  mingled  with  wheat,  and  the  bad  fish  with  the  good,  so 
the  wicked  with  the  righteous,  and  should  remain  so  mingled  to  the  end 
of  the  present  age  ;t  and  this  not  merely  as  an  historic  fact,  but  that 
all  attempts  to  have  it  otherwise  are  here  expressly  forbidden.     The 

*  Augustine  {Scrm.  351,  c.  4)  :  Mnlti  enim  corriguntur  ut  Petrus,  multi  toleran- 
tur  ut  Judas,  multi  nesciuntur  donee  adveniat  Dominus,  qui  illuminet  abscondita 
tenebrarum,  et  manifestet  consilia  cordium.  And  in  another  place :  Homo  sum  et 
inter  homines  vivo,  nee  mihi  arrogare  audeo  meliorem  domum  meam  quJim  area 
Noah.  He  often  rebukes  the  Donatists  for  their  low  Pharisaical  views  concerning 
what  the  separation  from  sinners  meant.  Thus  (Serm.  88,  c.  20) :  Displicuit  tibi 
quod  quisque  peccavit,  non  tetigisti  immundum.  Redarguisti,  corripuisti,  monu- 
isti,  adhibui.sti  etiam,  si  res  exegit,  congruam  et  quae  imitatem  non  violat  discipli- 
nam,  existi  inde : — see  much  more  that  is  excellent.  In  another  place  he  asks.  Did 
the  prophet  of  old,  who  said  "  Go  ye  out  of  the  midst  of  her,"  (Isai.  hi.  11.)  him- 
self separate  from  the  Jewish  church  1 — Continendo  se  k  consen.su  non  tetigit  im- 
mundum :  objurgando  autem  exiit  liber  in  conspectu  Dei :  cui  nequq  sua  Deus 
peccata  imputat,  quia  non  fecit,  neque  aliena,  quia  non  approbavit,  neque  negli- 
gentiam,  quia  non  tacuit,  neque  superbiam,  quia  in  unitate  permansit.  See  also 
Ad  Don.  Post.  Coll..  c.  20.  And  once  more :  Cecidit  Angelus ;  numquid  inqiiina- 
vit  coelum  1  Cecidit  Adam  ;  numquid  inquinavit  Paradisum  1  Cecidit  unus  de 
filiis  Noe  ;  nunKiuid  inquinavit  Justi  domum  ?  Cecidit  Judas  ;  numquid  inqui- 
navit apostolorura  clioros  1 — This  extract  is  from  one  of  the  sermons  in  the  volume 
of  Scrmoncs  Incdili  of  Angu.stine  lately  published  (they  are  indeed  inedited  still)  at 
Paris.  This  Sermon  is  among  the  not  very  many,  which  bear  the  stamp  of  un- 
questionable genuineness  upon  them. 

t  Augustine :  Alia  est  agri  conditio,  alia  quies  horrei. 


THE  TARES.  77 

Donatists  then  were  in  fact  acting  as  the  servants  in  the  parable  would 
have  done,  if,  after  the  master's  distinct  prohibition,  they  had  gone  and 
sought  forcibly  to  root  out  the  tares. 

There  will  be  occasion  hereafter  to  note  how  the  Donatists  sought  to 
escape  the  argument  drawn  from  that  other  parable.  They  were  put  to 
hard  shifts  to  reply  to  this,  but  made  answer. — "  By  the  Lord's  own 
showing  '•the field''  is  not  the  Church,  but  the  world.  The  parable, 
therefore,  does  not  bear  on  the  dispute  betwixt  us  and  you  in  the  least, 
that  dispute  being  not  whether  ungodly  men  should  be  suffered  in  the 
world  (that  is  plain  enough),  but  whether  they  should  be  endured  in  the 
Church."*  But  it  must  be  evident  to  every  one  who  is  not  warped  by  a 
dogmatic  interest,!  that  the  parable  is,  as  the  Lord  announces  at  its  first 
utterance,  concerning  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  the  Church.  It  re- 
quired no  special  teaching  to  acquaint  the  disciples,  that  in  tJie  xvorld 
there  would  ever  be  a  mixture  of  good  and  bad,  though  they  must  have 
been  so  little  prepared  to  expect  the  same  in  the  Church,  that  H  was 
very  needful  to  warn  them  beforehand,  both  that  they  might  not  be 
offended,  and  think  the  promises  of  God  had  failed,  when  the  evil  should 
appear;  and  also  that  they  might  know  how  to  behave  themselves,  when 
that  mystery  of  iniquity,  now  foretold,  should  begin  manifestly  to  work. 
Nor  need  the  tei'm  "world''''  here  used  perplex  us  in  the  least:  it  was 
the  world,  and  therefore  was  rightly  called  so,  till  this  seed  was  sown  in 
it.  but  thenceforth  was  the  world  no  longer.  No  narrower  word  would 
have  sufficed  for  him,  in  whose  prophetic  eye  the  word  of  the  Gospel 
was  contemplated  as  going  forth  into  all  lands,  and  sown  in  every  part 
of  the  great  outfield  of  the  nations. 

'•'•But  while  men  slept ^  his  enemy  came  and  sowed\  tares  among  the 


*  See  how  Augustine  answers  this  argument,  Ad  Don.  post  Coll.,  c.  8.  As  the 
Donatists  protl'ssed  to  malvc  much  of  Cyprian's  authority,  Augustine  quotes  often 
from  him  (as  Con.  Gaudent.,  1.  2.  c.  4)  words  wliich  show  that  he  understood  the 
parable  as  one  relating  to  the  Church  :  Nam  etsi  videntur  in  Ecdesid  esse  zizania, 
non  tamen  impodiri  debet  aut  fides  aut  caritas  nostra,  ut  quoniam  zizania  esse  in 
Ecclcsid  ccrnimus,  ipsi  de  Ecclesia.  recedamus.  Nobis  tantummodo  laborandum 
est,  ut  frunientnni  esse  possimus.  ut  cum  coeperit  frumentum  Dominicis  horrcis 
condi  fructum  pro  opere  nostro  et  laborc  capiamus. 

t  Commentators  who  have  interpreted  the  parable,  irrespectively  of  that  con- 
troversy one  way  or  the  other,  acknowledge  this.  Thus  Calvin  ;  Quanquam  autem 
Christus  i)ostea  subjicit  mnndum  esse  agrum,  dubium  tamen  non  est,  quin  i)ropri6 
hoc  nomen  ad  Ecck'siani  a])tai'e  volucrit,  de  qua  exorsus  fuerat  sermonem.  Sed 
quoniam  i)assim  aratrum  sunm  ductunis  erat  per  omnes  mundi  plagas,  ut  sibi  agros 
excoleret  in  toto  mundo,  ac  spargeret  vitaj  semen,  per  synecdochen  ad  mundum 
transtulit  <]Uod  ])arti  tantiim  magis  quadrabat. 

:f  In  the  Vulgate.  .«?/;yr7seminiivit,  as  in  the  Rhemish,  oversowed,  according  to 
the  better  reading,  i-niairapfv,  which  Lachmann  retains. 


78  THE  TARES. 

wheat^  and  ivent  his  xoayP  Our  Lord  did  not  invent  here  a  form  of 
malice  without  example,  but  alluded  to  one  which,  though  elsewhere 
unnoted  in  Scripture,  was  familiar  enough  to  his  hearers — one  so  easy 
of  execution,  involving  so  little  risk,  and  yet  eiFeeting  so  great  and  so 
lasting  a  mischief,  that  it  is  not  strange,  that  where  cowardice  and  ma- 
lice met,  this  should  often  have  been  the  shape  in  which  they  displayed 
themselves.  We  meet  traces  of  it  in  many  directions.  Thus  in  the 
Roman  law  the  possibility  of  this  form  of  injury  is  contemplated,  and  a 
modern  writer  illustrating  Scripture  from  the  manners  and  habits  of 
the  East,  with  which  he  had  become  familiar  through  a  sojourn  there, 
aflBrms  the  same  to  be  now  practised  in  India.  "  See,"  he  says,  "  that 
lurking  villain  watching  for  the  time  when  his  neighbor  shall  plough  his 
field  :  he  carefully  marks  the  period  when  the  work  has  been  finished, 
and  goes  in  the  night  following,  and  casts  in  what  the  natives  call  pan- 
dmellu,  i.  e.  pig-paddy :  this  being  of  rapid  growth,  springs  up  before 
the  good  seed,  and  scatters  itself  before  the  other  can  be  reaped,  so  that 
the  poor  owner  of  the  field  will  be  for  years  before  he  can  get  rid  of  the 
troublesome  weed  But  there  is  another  noisome  plant  which  these 
wretches  cast  into  the  ground  of  those  they  hate,  called  perum^mrmdi, 
which  is  more  destructive  to  vegetation  than  any  other  plant.  Has  a 
man  purchased  a  field  out  of  the  hands  of  another,  the  oflFended  person 
says,  '  I  will  plant  the  perum-pirandi  in  his  grounds.'  "* 

Many  have  made  the  first  words  here  significant,  and  suppose  that 
they  indicate  the  negligence  and  lack  of  watchfulness  on  the  part  of 
rulers  in  the  Church,  whereby  ungodly  men  should  creep  in  unawares, 
introducing  errors  in  doctrine  and  in  practice.!  (Acts  xx.  29,  30 ; 
Jude  4;  2  Pet.  ii.  1,  2,  19.)  But  seeing  it  is  thus  indefinitely  put,  and 
the  servants,  who  should  have  watched,  if  any  should  have  done  so,  are 
first  designated  at  a  later  stage  of  the  history,  and  then  without  any  thing 

*  Roberts'  Oriental  I/lustrations,  p.  541.  A  friend  who  has  occupied  a  judicial 
station  in  India  confirms  this  account.  "We  are  not  without  this  form  of  malice  " 
nearer  home.  Thus  in  Ireland  I  have  known  an  outgoing  tenant,  in  spite  at  his 
ejection,  to  sow  wild  oats  in  the  fields  which  he  was  leaving.  These,  like  the  plant 
mentioned  above,  ripening  and  seeding  themselves  before  the  crops  in  which  they 
were  mingled,  it  became  next  to  impossible  to  get  rid  of  them. 

t  So  Augustine  (Qucest.  ex  Matth.,  qu.  9) :  Ciim  negligentius  agerent  pitepositi 
EcclcsiiB  ;  and  Chrysostom.  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Annott.  in  Matth.)  :  Mortem  sig- 
nificat  Apostolorum  sive  torporcm  praBlatorum.  But  Grotius  more  rightly :  'Av^pd- 
irovs,  hie  indefinitura  est,  non  universale  :  quasi  dicas,  ciim  dorrairetur :  hoc  autem 
nihil  est  aliud  quam  descriptio  opportunitatis  ; — and  Cajetan's  remark  has  value  : 
Cilm  dormirent  hnviines,  non  dicit  custodes,  si  enim  dixisset  custodcs.  intelligere- 
mus  negligi-ntiam  custodum  accusari,  sed  dicit  homines,  ut  inculpabiles  intelliga- 
mus,  natuvali  .somno  ocupatos.  Jerome's  Dormiente  patre-famUias  {Ad  I/iucif.)  is 
only  explicable  as  other  than  an  error  on  this  view. 


THE  TARES.  79 

to  mark  a  past  omission  on  their  part,  it  would  seem  that  the  men  who 
slept  are  not  such  as  should  have  done  otherwise,  but  the  phrase  is  equi- 
valent to '•  at  night."  and  means  nothing  further.  (Job  xxiii.  15.)  This 
enemy  seized  his  opportunity,  when  all  eyes  were  closed  in  sleep,  and 
wrought  the  secret  mischief  upon  which  he  was  intent,  and  having 
wrought  it  undetected,  withdrew. 

''  The  enemy  that  soivecl "  the  tares,  we  learn,  "  is  tJie  devils*  so  that 
we  behold  Satan  here,  not  as  he  works  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Church, 
deceiving  the  world,  but  in  his  far  deeper  skill  and  malignity,  as  he  at 
once  mimicks  and  counterworlA  the  work  of  Christ :  in  the  words  of 
Chrysostoui,  "  after  the  prophets,  the  false  prophets  ;  after  the  apostles, 
the  false  apostles ;  after  Christ,  Antichrist."! 

"We  may  further  notice  with  what  distinctness  the  doctrine  concern- 
ing Satan  and  his  agency,  his  active  hostility  to  the  blessedness  of  man, 
of  which  there  is  so  little  in  the  Old  Testament,  comes  out  in  our  Lord's 
teaching  in  the  New.  As  the  lights  become  brighter,  the  shadows 
become  deeper ;  but  till  the  mightier  power  of  good  was  revealed,  we 
were  in  mercy  not  sufiPered  to  know  how  mighty  was  the  power  of  evil : 
and  even  here  it  is  in  each  case  only  to  the  innermost  circle  of  the 
disciples,  that  the  explanation  concerning  Satan  is  given.  So  it  was  not 
till  the  Son  of  man  actually  appeared  on  the  stage  of  the  world,  that 
Satan  came  distinctly  forward  upon  it  also ;  but  the  instant  that  Christ 
opens  his  ministry  for  the  setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  at  the  same 
instant  Satan  starts  forward  as  the  hinderer  and  adversary  of  it,  the 
tempter  of  him  who  is  the  head  and  prince  of  this  kingdom. |  And 
instead  of  hearing  less  of  Satan,  as  the  mystery  of  tlie  kingdom  of  God 
proceeds  to  unfold  itself,  in  the  last  book  of  Scripture,  that  which  details 
the  fortune  of  the  Church  till  the  end  of  time,  we  hear  more  of  him, 
and  he  is  brought  in  more  evidently  and  openly  working  than  in  any 
other. 

It  is  very  observable,  too,  that  Satan  is  spoken  of  as  his  enemy,  the 
enemy  of  the  Son  of  man ;  for  here,  as  in  so  many  other  places,  the 
great  conflict  is  spoken  of  as  rather  between  Satan  and  the  Son  of  man, 
than  between  Satan  and  God.      It  was  part  of  the  great  scheme  of 

*  Zizaniator,  as  therefore  he  has  been  called;  see  Dci  C.\ngk,  s.  v.  zizaniura; 
and  by  TiTtullian  (Z?e  Animd,  c.  IG),  Avcnarum  supersoniiiiatoreni  ct  fniinentarife 
scgetis  nocttirnum  interpolatorem.  Wlien  Ignatius  exhort.s  the  Epliesians  (c.  10) 
that  no  one  be  found  among  them,  rod  Sia06Kov  fiordvT],  no  doubt  tliere  is  an  allu- 
sion to  this  parable. 

t  Cf  Tkrtuli.ian,  De  Prrcscr.  Hard.,  3.  31. 

X  Bengel  (on  Ephcs.  vi.  12)  has  observed  this  :  Qn6  aportius  ([uisque  ScriptursB 
liber  de  (vronomia.  et  gloria,  Christi  agit,  e6  apertius  rursum  dc  regno  contrario 
tenebrarum. 


80  THE  TARES. 

redemption,  that  the  victory  over  evil  should  be  a  moral  triumph,  not  a 
triumpli  obtained  by  a  mere  putting  forth  of  superior  strength.*  We 
can  see  how  important  for  this  end  it  was,  that  man,  who  lost  the  battle, 
should  also  win  it  (1  Cor.  xv.  21),  and  therefore  as  by  and  through  man 
the  kingdom  of  darkness  was  to  be  overthrown,  so  the  enmity  of  the 
Serpent  was  specially  directed  against  the  seed  of  the  woman,  the  Son 
of  man.  The  title  given  him  is  •'  The  ivicked  one;''''  the  article  is  em- 
phatic, and  points  him  out  as  the  absolutely  evil,  of  whom  the  ground  of 
his  being  is  evil.  For  as  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no  darkness  at  all 
(1  John  i.  5 ;  Jam.  i.  17),  so  Satan  is  darkness,  and  in  him  is  no  light; 
there  is  no  truth  in  him.  Man  is  in  a  middle  position  ;  he  detains  the 
truth  in  unrighteousness ;  light  and  darkness  in  him  are  struggling ; 
but,  whichever  may  predominate,  the  other  is  there,  kept  down  indeed, 
but  still  with  the  possibility  of  manifesting  itself  Herein  lies  the 
possibility  of  a  redemption  for  man,  that  his  will  is  only  perverted  ;  but 
Satan's  will  is  inverted,  for  he  has  said  what  it  is  never  possible  for  a 
man  to  say,  or  at  least  fully  to  act  upon,  "  Evil,  be  thou  my  good ;" 
and  therefore,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  a  redemption  and  restoration  are 
impossible  for  him. 

It  makes  much  for  the  beauty  of  the  parable,  and  is  full  of  instruc- 
tion, that  wheat  and  tares  are  not  seeds  of  diiferent  kinds,  but  that  the 
last  is  a  degenerate  or  bastard  wheat  ;t  so  that,  in  the  very  emblems 


*  In  Augustine's  memorable  words :  Diabolus  non  potentift.  Dei  sed  justitid. 
superandus  erat. 

•f  It  is  well  kno^vn  that  the  word  ^i^dviov  nowhere  occurs  except  here,  and  in 
the  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers  who  have  drawn  it  i'rom  this  parable.  The  Etymol. 
Mag.  gives  another  derivation  of  the  word  besides  that  quoted  by  Schleusner,  and 
a  better,  though  even  that  will  scarcely  command  assent :  irapa  t6  trlros  koI  iCdvu, 
that  which  grows  side  by  side  with  the  wheat.  Tertullian  always  renders  it  by  avena, 
which  is  incorrect ;  neither  is  Augustine  suiSciently  exact  when  he  says,  Omnis 
immunditia  in  segete  zizania  dicitur ;  nor  again  is  it,  as  our  translators  would  seem 
to  have  understood  it,  the  vicia,  but  the  aipa,  or  lolium  temulenhtm  (in  German. 
ToUkorn,  in  French,  yvroie),  having  that  addition  to  distinguish  it  from  the  lolium 
proper,  with  which  it  has  nothing  but  the  name  in  common,  because  of  the  vertigo 
which  it  causes,  when  mingled  with  and  eaten  in  bread.  This  in  the  East,  despite 
its  poisonous  qualities,  not  uncommonly  happens — it  being  so  hard  to  separate  it 
from  the  wheat.  The  assertion  made  above,  that  it  is  a  degenerate  wheat,  seems, 
I  think,  perfectly  made  out.  Lightfoot  quotes  these  words,  distinctly  asserting 
it,  from  the  Talmud.  "  '  Wheat  and  zunin  are  not  seeds  of  different  kinds.' 
Where  the  gloss  is  this,  'zunin  is  a  kind  of  wheat  which  is  changed  in  the  earth, 
both  as  to  its  form  and  to  its  nature.' "  And  in  a  passage  quoted  by  Buxtorf  {Lex. 
Talm.,  p.  680).  this  is  noted  as  part  of  the  progressive  deterioration  of  nature, 
which  went  hand  in  hand  with  man's  wickedness ;  'they  sowed  wheat  and  the 
earth  brought  forth  zunin."  MichaClis  indeed  {Mos.  Rccht,  v.  4,  p.  322)  says  that 
these  Rabbis,  who  probably  never  saw  a  corn-field  in  their  lives,  are  not  to  be  lis- 


THE  TARES.  81 

which  the  Lord  uses,  the  Manichasan  error  is  guarded  against,  which, 
starting  from  the  (falsely  assumed)  fact,  that  wheat  and  tares  are 
different  in  kind,  proceeds  to  argue,  that  as  tares  by  no  process  of 
culture  can  become  wheat,  so  neither  can  the  children  of  the  wicked  one 
become  children  of  the  kingdom.  Satan  is  no  Ahriman  who  can  create 
children  of  darkness;  he  can  only  spoil  children  of  light.  Calvin* 
himself,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  with  some  who  call  themselves 
by  his  name,  is  careful  to  guard  against  that  conclusion  here,  which 
would  have  been  an  abuse  of  parabolical  language,  a  pressing  of  acci- 
dental circumstances  too  far,t  even  supposing  that  the  tares  and  wheat 
had  been  altogether  different  in  their  kinds.  But  the  fact  in  natural 
history,  noticed  above,  besides  rescuing  this  passage  from  the  possibility 
of  being  so  abused,  makes  also  this  image  peculiarly  instructive  and 
curiously  adapted  to  the  setting  forth  the  origin  of  evil,  that  it  is  not  a 


tened  to  in  the  matter :  see  also  Ambrose  Hexaem.,  1.  3,  c.  10.  Yet  on  the  other 
hand  Pliny  {H.  N.,  1.  18,  c.  17),  says  of  the  lolium  as  of  some  other  plants,  inter 
frugum  viorbos  potius  qukm  inter  ipsius  terras  pestem  numeraverim :  and  an  old 
Scholiast  upon  the  Gcorgics,  on  the  words,  Infelix  lolium,  writes  tlius :  Triticum  et 
hordcum  in  lolium  mutantur.  This  quite  explains  the  difficulty  of  knowing  them 
apart,  and  the  danger,  therefore,  of  plucking  up  one  for  the  other :  since  only 
when  the  grains  begin  to  form,  that  of  the  lolium  being  dark,  sometimes  nearly 
black,  the  difference  clearly  reveals  itself  The  tendency  of  wheat,  badly  culti- 
vated, to  degenerate  is  well  known,  and  is  noted  by  Columella  {De  lie  Rust.,  1.  2, 
c.  9)  :  Omne  triticum  solo  uliginoso  post  tertiam  sationem  convertitur  in  siliginem. 
The  same  happened  with  the  Grape  (see  Goscnius  on  Isai.  v.  2) :  "  It  brought 
forth  wild  grapes"  (labruscas).  The  tendency  of  the  uncared-for  tree  to  fall  away 
from  its  first  perfection,  of  the  neglected  seed  to  worsen,  is  but  another  of  the  infinite 
and  wonderful  analogies  which  the  world  of  nature  supplies  to  the  world  of  man. — 
By  far  the  fullest  and  most  satisfying  account  of  the  Ct^wiov  is  given  by  Schultctus 
{Crit.  Sac.  V.  6,  p.  2026) :  I  had  not  seen  it  when  the  note  above  was  written,  but 
it  arrives  altogether  at  the  same  conclusions. 

*  Observing  how  the  Manlch;eans  have  abused  this  passage  he  proceeds :  Atqui 
scimus,  quidquid  vitii  est  tarn  in  diabolo,  quJira  in  hominibus  non  aliud  esse  quam 
integrae  naturaj  corruptelam  ; — and  Augustine,  on  a  passage  exposed  to  like  abuse 
(John  viii.  44),  "  Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil,"  guards  against  such,  explaining 
it, — Imitando  non  nascendo.  Compare  Irenteus,  Con.  liar.,  1.  4,  c.  41,  ^  2,  and 
Grotius  on  Matt.  vii.  18 ;  and  who  has  not  heard  in  arguments  concerning  pre- 
de.stinatk>n,  how  goats  can  never  become  sheep,  nor  sheep  goats  1  (Matt.  xxv. 
32,  33.) 

t  Chrysostom  rather  lias  right,  when  {De  Panit.,  Horn.  8)  he  compares  the 
Church  to  a  better  ark.  Into  the  other  ark,  as  the  animals  entered  so  they  came 
out ;  a  hawk  entered  in,  and  a  hawk  came  forth,  a  wolf  entered  in,  and  a  wolf 
came  forth.  But  into  this  a  hawk  has  entered  in,  and  a  dove  comes  out ;  a  wolf 
ha.s  entered  in,  and  a  sheep  issues  forth ;  a  serpent  has  entered  in,  and  a  lamb 
comes  forth.  • 


82  THE  TARES. 

generation,  but  a  degeneration  ;  that  as  Augustine  often  expresses  it,  it 
has  not  an  efficient,  but  only  a  deficient  cause.* 

Having  sown  his  tares,  the  enemy  "  went  his  wayP  The  work  did 
not  evidently,  and  at  first  sight,  appear  to  be  his.  How  often,  in  the 
Churcli,  tlie  beginnings  of  evil  have  been  scarcel}'  discernible, — how  often 
has  that  which  bore  the  worst  fruit  in  after-times,  looked  at  first  like  a 
higher  form  of  good.  St.  Paul,  indeed,  could  see  the  mystery  of  iniquity, 
which,  in  the  apostolic  times,  was  already  working — could  detect  the 
punctum  saliens  out  of  which  it  would  unfold  itself;  but  to  most,  evil 
would  not  appear  as  evil  till  it  had  grown  to  more  ungodliness :  just  as 
the  tares  did  not,  to  the  servants,  appear  to  be  such  till  "  the  blade  ivas 
sprung  up  and  brought  forth  fruit P  All  who  have  written  on  the 
subject  have  noted  the  great  similarity  that,  as  might  be  expected, 
exsits  between  the  wheat  and  this  lolium  or  tare,  while  yet  in  the  blade.f 
so  that  they  are  only  distinguishable  when  the  ear  is  formed ;  thus  ful- 
filling literally  the  Lord's  words,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
Augustine,  noting  how  it  was  only  when  the  blade  began  to  ripen  and 
bring  forth  fruit,  that  the  tares  began  also  to  appear  in  their  true  cha- 
racter, most  truly  remarks,  that  it  is  only  the  opposition  of  good  which 
makes  evil  to  appear.  "  None,"  he  says,  "  appear  evil  in  the  Church, 
except  to  him  who  is  good ;"  and  again,  "  When  one  shall  have  begun 
to  be  a  spiritual  man,  judging  all  things,  then  errors  begin  to  appear  to 
him  ;"|  and  in  another  place  he  makes  the  following  observations,  drawn 
from  the  depths  of  his  Christian  experience :  "  It  is  a  great  labor  of  the 
good,  to  bear  the  contrary  manners  of  the  wicked ;  by  which  he  who  is 
not  oifended  has  profited  little,  for  the  righteous,  in  proportion  as  he 
recedes  from  his  own  wickedness,  is  grieved  by  that  of  others."^  As 
there  must  be  light,  with  which  to  contrast  the  darkness,  height  where- 
with to  measure  depth,  so  there  must  be  holiness  to  be  grieved  at 
unholiness :  and  this  is  true,  not  only  in  the  collective  Church,  but  in 
each  individual  member  of  it,  that  as  the  new  man  is  formed  in  him,  the 


*  De  Civ.  Dei.  1.  12,  c.  7. 

t  The  testimony  of  Jerome,  himself  resident  in  Palestine,  may  here  be  adduced: 
Inter  triticnm  ct  zizania,  quod  nos  appellamus  lolium,  quamdiu  herba  est,  et  non- 
dum  culmus  venit  ad  spicam,  grandis  similitudo  est,  et  in  discernendo  aut  nulla 
aut  pcrdifficilis  distantia. 

X  Quad,  ex  Matt.,  qu.  12 :  where  is  to  be  found  an  admirable  exposition  of  the 
whole  parable. 

§  Tantiim  enim  torquet  justum  iniquitas  aliena,  quantum  recedit  a.  sua.  Cf. 
Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxix.  4,  and  in  Ps.  cxl. :  Nonduni  sum  totus  instauratus  ad  imagi- 
nem  fabricatoris  mei :  coepi  resculpi,  et  ex  ea,  parte  qud,  reformor,  disciplicet  mihi 
quod  deforme  est. 


THE  TARES.  83 

old  man  will  become  more  and  more  displeasing, — will  come  more  and 
more  into  distinct  opposition. 

"  So  tlie  servants  of  the  householder  cmne  mid  said  unto  him^  Sir^ 
didst  not  tliou  soiv  good  seed  in  thy  jield  ?  from  wlience  tJien  hcUh  it 
tares  ?"  Theophylact  interprets  this  of  the  angels,  indignant  that  there 
should  be  heresies,  scandals,  and  offences  in  the  Church ;  for  having 
explained,  '■'■ichiJe  men  skj)t"  of  the  comparative  negligence  of  the 
householder's  servants,  that  is,  of  some  Church  rulers  who  ought  better 
to  have  kept  the  borders  of  the  Church  from  the  incursions  of  the  enemy^ 
he  now  finds  it  inconvenient  to  understand  the  same  servants  as  those  so 
much  offended  by  the  mischief  which  had  been  done.  But  the  angels 
are  so  clearly  pointed  out  (ver.  30)  as  different  from  the  servants,  that 
this  must  be  a  mistake,  and  even  granting  that  the  words  "  while  men 
slej)t"  do  indicate,  as  he  supposes,  the  negligence  of  some  who  ought  to 
have  watched,  still  it  is  easy  to  say,  some  slept,  and  some  wished  to  do 
away  with  the  consequence  of  the  others'  negligence.  These  servants  are 
not  angels,  but  men,  speaking  out  of  the  same  spirit  as  animated  those 
disciples,  who  would  fain  have  commanded  fire  to  come  down  from 
heaven  on  the  inhospitable  Samaritan  village.  Those  disciples,  as  the 
servants  here,  did  well  that  they  had  a  righteous  zeal  for  their  Master's 
honor ;  but  in  each  case  the  zeal  needed  to  be  tempered  and  restrained. 

The  question  which  they  ask,  "  Didst  not  thou  soiv  good  seed  in  thy 
ficldV  is  not  put  merely  to  give  opportunity  for  the  householder's  reply: 
but  expresses  well  the  perplexity,  the  surprise,  the  inward  questionings, 
which  must  often  be  felt,  which  in  the  first  ages,  before  long  custom  had 
too  much  reconciled  to  the  mournful  spectacle,  must  have  been  felt  very 
strongly  by  all  who  were  zealous  for  God,  at  the  woful  and  unexpected 
appearance  which  the  visible  Church  pr^ented.  Where  was  the  "glori- 
ous Church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing?"  Well, 
indeed,  might  the  fai^thful  have  questioned  their  own  spirit,  have  poured 
out  their  hearts  in  prayer,  of  which  the  burden  should  have  been  nearly 
tliis,  "  Didst  not  tlixm  sow  good  seed  in  thy  field?  from  whence  then  hath 
it  tares  ? — didst  thou  not  constitute  thy  Church  to  be  a  pure  and  holy 
communion? — is  not  the  doctrine  such  as  should  only  produce  fruits  of 
righteousness?  whence  then  is  it  that  even  within  the  holy  precincts 
themselves,  there  should  be  so  many  who  themselves  openly  sin  and 
cause  others  to  sin  ?"* 


*  Menken:  " This  question,  '  Whence  then  hath  it  tares?"  is  the  result  of  our 
first  study  of  Church  history,  and  remains  afterwards  the  motto  of  Church  history, 
and  the  riddle  wliich  should  be  solved  hy  help  of  a  faithful  history ;  instead  of 
which,  many  so-called  Church  historians  [authors  of  Ancient  Christianity,  and  the 
like],  ignorant  of  the  purpose  and  of  the  hidden  glory  of  the  Church,  have  their 


84  THE  TARES. 

But  in  the  householder's  reply,  the  mischief  is  traced  up  to  its 
origin  :  "  An  enemy  hath  done  this."  It  is  attributed  not  to  the  imper- 
fection, ignorance,  weakness,  which  cling  to  every  thing  human,  and 
which  would  prevent  even  a  Divine  idea  from  being  more  than  very 
inadequately  realized  by  men  ;  but  to  the  distinct  counterworking  of  the 
great  spiritual  enemy  ;  they  are  "  spiritual  wickednesses."  No  doubt  in 
the  furtlier  question,  "  Wilt  thou  then  that  we  go  and  gather  them  v,p  V 
the  temptation  to  use  outward  power  for  the  suppression  of  error,  a 
temptation  which  the  Church  itself  has  sometimes  found  it  difficult  to 
resist,  finds  its  voice  and  utterance.*  But  they  were  unfit  to  be  trusted 
here.  Their  zeal  was  but  an  Elias  zeal  at  the  best.  (Luke  ix.  54.) 
They  who  thus  speak  have  often  no  better  than  a  Jehu's  "  zeal  for  the 
Lord."  And  therefore  "  he  said^  Nay."  By  this  prohibition  are  doubt- 
less forbidden  all  such  measures  for  the  excision  of  heretics  and  other 
offenders,  as  shall  leave  them  no  possibility  for  after  repentance  or 
amendment ;  indeed  the  prohibition  is  so  clear,  so  express,  so  plain,  that 
whenever  we  meet  in  Church  history  with  something  that  looks  like  the 
carrying  into  execution  this  proposal  of  the  servants,  we  may  suspect,  as 
Bengel  says,  that  it  is  not  wheat  making  war  on  tares,  but  tares  seeking 
to  root  out  wheat.  The  reason  of  the  prohibition  is  given  ;  "  Lest  ivhih 
ye  gatlier  up  the  tares,  ye  root  up  also  tlie  wheat  with  tlietnP  This 
might  be,  either  by  rooting  up  what  were  now  tares,  but  hereafter  should 
become  wheat — children  of  the  wicked  one.  who,  by  faith  and  repentance 
should  become  children  of  the  kingdom  ;t — or  it  might  happen  through 
the  mistake  of  the  servants,  who,  with  the  best  intentions,  should  fail  to 
distinguish  between  these  and  those,  leaving  the  tares  and  uprooting  the 
wheat.  It  is  only  the  Lord  himself,  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  who  with 
absolute  certainty  "knoweth  them  that  are  his."  But  the  Romish 
expositors,  and  those  who,  in  earlier  times,  wrote  in  the  interest  of 
Rome,  in  these  words,  " lest  ye  root  up  the  wheat  with  tJiem"  find  a 
loophole  whereby  they  may  escape  the  prohibition  itself  Thus  Aquinas 
says,  the  prohibition  is  only  binding,  when  there  exists  this  danger  of 

pleasure  in  the  tares,  and  imagine  themselves  wonderfully  wise  and  useful,  when  out 
of  Church  history,  which  ought  to  be  the  history  of  the  Light  and  the  Trxith,  they  have 
made  a  shameful  history  of  error  and  wickedness.  They  have  no  desire  to  edify,  to 
further  holiness  or  the  knowledge  of  the  truth ;  but  at  the  expense  of  the  Church 
would  gratify  a  proud  and  ignorant  world." 

*  Augustine  (Qua:st.  e.-c  Mafth.,  qu.  12):  Potest  ei  suboriri  voluntas,  ut  tales 
homines  de  rebus  humanis  auferat,  si  aliquani  temporis  habeat  facultatem :  sed 
utriJm  facere  debeat,  justitiam  Dei  consulit,  utri!im  hoc  ei  prsecipiat  vel  permittat, 
et  hoc  ofRcium  esse  hominem  velit. 

f  Jerome :  Monemur,  ne  cit6  amputemus  fratrem :  quia  fieri  potest,  ut  ille, 
qui  hodie  noxio  depravatus  est  dogmate,  eras  resipiscat,  et  defendere  incipiat 
veritatem. 


THE  TARES.  85 

plucking  up  the  wheat  together  with  the  tares  ;*  and  Maldonatus,  that 
in  each  particular  case  the  householder  is  to  judge  whether  thei-e  be 
such  danger  or  no.  The  Pope,  he  adds,  is  now,  the  representative  of  the 
householder,  and  to  him  the  question  is  to  be  put,  ■•Wilt  thou  that  xoe 
go  and  gatJier  up  the  tares  ?"  and  he  concludes  his  exposition  with  an 
exhortation  to  all  Catholic  princes,  that  they  imitate  the  zeal  of  these 
servants,  and  rather,  like  them,  need  to  have  their  eagerness  restrained, 
than  require  to  be  urged  on  to  the  task  of  rooting  out  heresies  and 
heretics. 

The  householder  proceeds  to  declare — not  that  the  tares  shall  never 
be  plucked  up,  but  that  this  is  not  the  time,  and  they  not  the  doers. 
"  Let  both  grow  togctlier  until  tJte  harvest."  In  these  words  the  true 
doctrine  concerning  Antichrist,  not  indeed  the  personal  Antichrist,  but 
the  antichristian  power,  is  implicitly  declared.  We  learn  that  evil  is 
not,  as  so  many  dream,  gradually  to  wane  and  to  disappear  before  good, 
the  world  before  the  Church,  but  is  ever  to  develope  itself  more  fully, 
even  as  on  the  other  side,  good  is  to  unfold  itself  more  and  more  mightily 
also.  Thus  it  will  go  on,  till  at  last  they  stand  face  to  face,  each  in  its 
highest  manifestation,  in  the  persons  of  Christ  and  of  Antichrist :  on  the 
one  hand,  an  incarnate  God.  on  the  other,  the  man  in  whom  the  fulness 
of  all  Satanic  power  will  dwell  bodily.  Botli  are  to  grow,  evil  and  good, 
till  they  come  to  a  head,  till  they  are  ripe,  one  for  destruction,  and  the 
other  for  full  salvation.  And  they  are  to  grow  together ;  the  visible 
Church  is  to  have  its  intermixture  of  good  and  bad  until  the  end  of 
time,  and  by  consequence  that  the  fact  of  the  bad  being  found  mingled 
with  the  good  will  in  no  wise  justify  a  separation  from  it,  or  an  attempt 
to  set  up  a  little  Church  of  our  own.f  Where  men'will  attempt  this, 
besides  the  guilt  of  transgressing  a  plain  command,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see  what  fatal  eflPects  on  their  own  spiritual  life  it  must  have,  what  dark- 
ness it  must  bring  upon  them,  and  into  what  a  snare  of  pride  it  must 
cast  them.  For  while  even  in  the  best  of  men  there  is  the  same  inter- 
mixture of  good  and  evil  as  there  is  outwardly  in  the  Church,  such  con- 
duct will  infallibly  lead  a  man  to  the  wilful  shutting  his  eyes  both  to 
the  evil  which  is  in  himself,  and  in  the  little  schismatical  body  he  will 

*  Summa  Theol.,  2a  2«,  qii.  10:  Cum  metus  iste  non  subest,  .  .  .  non  dormiat 
severitas  disciplinae. 

t  Calvin's  words  arc  excellent:  Estenini  hfcc  periculosa  tentatio,  nullam  Eccle- 
siam  putare,  ubi  non  appareat  perfecta  pnritas.  Nam  (juicunque  hac  occajjatus 
fucrit.  necesse  tandem  orit  ut.  discessionc  ab  omnibus  aliis  factft..  solus  sibi  sanctus 
vidoatur  in  mundo.  aut  peculiareni  sectaui  cum  ]mucis  byjiocritis  instituat.  Quid 
ergo  causfc  luvbuit  Paulus  cur  Eeclesiam  Dei  Corinthi  agnosceret  ?  nenipe  quia 
Evangelii  doctrinam.  baptisnuim.  ccenam  Domini,  (juibus  symbolis  censeri  debet 
Ecclesia,  apud  eos  cernebat. 


86  THE  TARES. 

then  call  the  Church,  since  only  so  the  attempt  will  even  seem  to  be  suc- 
cessful. 

Thus  Augustine  often  appeals  to  the  fact  that  the  Donatists  had  not 
succeeded, — that  they  themselves  would  not  dare  to  assert  that  they  had 
succeeded, — in  forming  what  should  even  externally  appear  a  pure  com- 
munion :  and  since  by  their  own  acknowledgment  there  might  be,  and 
probably  were,  hypocrites  and  concealed  ungodly  among  themselves,  this 
was  enough  to  render  all  such  passages  as  Isai.  lii.  1,  as  inapplicable  to 
them  as  the  Catholic  Church  in  its  present  condition.  And  yet  on  the 
strength  of  this  their  assumed  purity,  they  displayed  a  spirit  of  the  most 
intolerable  pride  and  presumptuous  uncharitableness  towards  the  Church 
from  which  they  had  separated.  And  the  same  sins  cleave  more  or  less 
to  all  schismatical  bodies,  which,  under  plea  of  a  purer  communion,  have 
divided  from  the  Church  Catholic  :* — the  smallest  of  these,  from  its  very 
smallness  persuading  itself  that  it  is  the  most  select  and  purest,  being 
generally  the  most  guilty  in  this  matter.  Not  that  there  is  not  some- 
thing in  every  man  which  inclines  him  to  the  error ;  every  young  Chris- 
tian in  the  time  of  his  first  zeal  is  tempted  to  be  somewhat  of  a  Donatist 
in  spirit.  Nay,  it  would  argue  little  love  or  holy  earnestness  in  him,  if 
he  had  not  this  longing  to  see  the  Church  of  his  Saviour  a  glorious 
Church  without  spot  or  wrinkle.  But  he  must  learn  that  the  desire, 
righteous  and  holy  as  in  itself  it  is,  yet  is  not  to  find  its  fulfilment  in 
this  present  evil  time ;  that  on  the  contrary,  the  sufi"ering  from  false 
brethren  is  one  of  the  pressures  upon  him,  which  is  meant  to  wring  out 
from  him  a  more  earnest  prayer  that  the  kingdom  of  God  may  appear. f 
He  learns  that  all  self-willed  and  impatient  attempts,  such  as  have  been 
repeated  again  and  again,  to  anticipate  that  perfect  communion  of  saints 
are  indeed  works  of  the  flesh,  and  that  however  well  they  may  promise 
at  the  first,  no  blessing  will  rest  upon  them,  nor  will  they  for  long  even 
appeal-  to  be  attended  with  success. | 

*  See  Augustine  {Coll.  Carth.,  d.  3,  c.  9)  for  an  extraordinary  instance  of  this 
pride  on  the  part  of  the  Donatist  adversaries  of  the  Church. 

t  Fuller  {Holy  State,  b.  5,  c.  2)  enumerates  six  reasons  why  in  the  kingdom  of 
grace  wicked  men  should  be  inseparably  mingled  with  godly : — '■  First,  because 
hypocrites  can  never  be  severed  but  by  him  that  can  search  the  heart ;  secondly, 
because  if  men  should  make  the  separation,  weak  Christians  would  be  counted  no 
Christian.s,  and  those  who  have  a  grain  of  grace  imder  a  load  of  imperfections, 
would  be  counted  reprobates ;  thirdly,  because  God's  vessels  of  honor  for  all  eter- 
nity, not  as  yet  appearing,  but  wallowing  in  sin,  would  be  made  castaways ;  fourth- 
ly, because  God  by  the  mixture  of  the  wicked  with  the  godly  will  try  the  watch- 
fulness and  patience  of  his  servants  ;  fifthly,  because  thereby  he  will  bestow  many 
favors  on  the  wicked,  to  clear  his  justice  and  render  them  the  more  inexcusable  ; 
lastly,  because  the  mixture  of  the  wicked  grieving  the  godly,  will  make  them  the 
more  heartily  pray  for  the  day  of  judgment." 

if  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  xcix.  1)  asks:  Quo  se  separaturus  est  Christianus 


THE  TARES.  87 

There  are  some  in  modern  times  who,  in  fear  lest  arguments  should 
be  drawn  from  this  parable  to  the  prejudice  of  attempts  to  revive  stricter 
discipline  in  the  Church,  have  sought  to  escape  the  cogency  of  the  argu- 
ments drawn  from  it,*  observing  that  in  our  Lord's  explanation  no  notice 
is  taken  of  the  proposal  made  by  the  servants  (ver.  28),  nor  yet  of  the 
householdei-'s  reply  to  that  proposal  (ver.  29).  They  argue,  therefore, 
that  this  parable  is  not  instructive  of  what  the  conduct  of  the  servants 
of  a  heavenly  Lord  ought  to  be,  but  merely  prophetic  of  what  generally 
will  be  the  case  in  the  Church — that  this  offer  of  the  servants  is  merely 
brought  in  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  master's  reply,  and  that  of 
that  the  latter  is  the  only  significant  portion.  But  it  is  clear  that  when 
Christ  asserts  that  it  is  his  purpose  to  make  a  complete  and  solemn  sepa- 
ration at  the  end,  he  implicitly  forbids,  not  the  exercise  in  the  mean  time 
of  a  godly  discipline,  not,  where  that  has  become  necessary,  absolute 
exclusion  from  Church-fellowship — but  any  attempts  to  anticipate  the 
final  irrevocable  separation,  of  which  lie  has  reserved  the  execution  to 
himself  t  That  shall  not  take  place  till  the  end  of  the  present  dispen- 
sation ;:|: — not  till  the  time  of  the  harvest^  will  the  householder  com- 


ut  non  gemat  inter  falsos  fratres  1  Solitudines  petat  1  sequuntur  scandala.  Sepa- 
raturus  est  sc  qui  bene  proficit,  ut  nullum  omnino  hominem  patiatur  1  quid  si  et 
ipsum  antequam  proficeret  nemo  vellet  pati  1  Si  ergo  quia  proficit,  nullum  homi- 
nem vult  pati,  60  ipso  quo  non  vult  aliquem  hominem  pati,  convincitur,  (juod  non 
profecerit.  An  quia  veloces  pedes  tibi  videris  habuisse  ad  transeundem,  prjeci- 
surus  cs  pontem  1 — The  whole  passage  is  too  long  to  quote,  but  deei)ly  instructive 
concerning  the  vanity  of  every  attempt  to  found  a  Church  on  a  subjective  instead 
of  an  objective  basis,  on  the  personal  holiness  of  the  members,  instead  of  recog- 
nizing one  there  to  be  founded  for  us,  where  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 
and  the  .sacraments  administered  by  those  who  are  duly  commissioned  to  these 
offices.  How  admirable  again  are  his  words  in  another  place  {Co/i.  Cresc,  1.  3,  c. 
35) :  Fugio  paleam  ne  hoc  sim  ;  non  aream,  ne  nihil  sini ;  and  see  also  Scrni.  164, 
c.  7,  8. 

*  Steiger,  in  the  Evang.  Kirch.  Zeit.,  1833,  and  an  able  ^\Titer  in  the  British 
Critic,  No.  52.  p.  385. 

t  TertuUian  {Apol.  c.  41) :  Qui  semel  .-cternum  judicium  destinavit  post  seculi 
finem,  non  precipitat  discretionem  qufe  est  conditio  judicii,  ante  seculi  finem. 

X  The  ffvintKua,  rov  alcHvor,  or  (tvut.  twv  aldvuv  (so  Heb.  ix.  20),  the  moment  of 
the  passing  over  from  this  alinv  to  the  coming,  the  juncture  of  the  two  eras  (see 
Job  xxiv.  20,  LXX.  /ie'xp'  (rvvreXfias  (purhs  koI  ffKSrovs),  the  present,  called  aliiv 
ivicnws  (Gal.  i.  4),  or  6  vvv  alwv  (Tit.  ii.  Vl)^K6fffi.os  oStoj,  with  the  futtirc  termed 
alaiv  ipxifi-fvo^  (Mark  X.  30),  aliiivis  iirtpxaufvoi  (Ei)hcs.  ii.  7),  atuju  6  fi.f\KQiv  (Ileb. 
vi.  o)=olKov/x€irri  T]  fieWovira  (Heb.  ii.  5).  The  phrase  is  equivalent  to  the  TtKri 
Twv  alwuaiv  (1  Cor.  X.  11),  the  extremities  of  the  two  eras,  the  end  of  the  one  and 
the  coniincnccment  of  the  other. 

()  Bisliop  Horsley  {BUjI.  Crif.,  v.  3,  p.  344,)  distinguishes  between  the  vintage 
and  tlie  harvest,  which  are  the  two  images  under  which  the  consununation  of  the 
present  age  are  so  commonly  represented.     "  The  vintage  is  always  an  image  of 


gg  THE  TARES. 

mand, — and  then  he  will  give  the  command  not  to  these  servants,  but  to 
the  reapers, — that  the  tares  be  gathered  out  from  among  the  wheat. 
Not  till  the  end  of  the  world  will  the  Son  of  man  send  forth  his  servants 
— nor  even  then  his  earthly  ministering  servants,*  but  "  his  angels^  mid 
tliey  sJtall  gather  out  of  his  kingdom  all  things  that  ojfeiul\  and  all  tvhich 
do  iniqxiitif — in  the  words  of  Zephaniah  (i.  3,)  "  the  stumbling-blocks 
of  the  wicked." 

The  lot  of  the  tares  is  to  be  gathered  into  bundlesj  and  consumed 
with  fire,  as  of  the  land  bearing  thorns  and  briers  the  end  is  to  be  burned. 
(Heb.  vi.  8.)  In  David  s  words  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  6,  7),  "  The  sons  of  Belial 
shall  be  all  of  them  as  thorns  thrust  away  .  .  .  and  they  shall  be  utterly 
burned  with  fire,"  or,  as  it  is  here  expressed,  the  angels  ''  shall  cast  tJieni 
into  tlie furnace  offireP  Elsewhere  (Mark  ix.  43-48),  the  woe  of  hell  is 
described  under  an  image  borrowed  from  the  valley  of  the  children  of  Hin- 

the  season  of  judgment,  but  the  harvest  of  the  ingathering  of  the  objects  of  God's 
final  mercy.  I  am  not  aware  that  a  single  unexceptionable  instance  is  to  be  found, 
in  which  the  harvest  is  a  tjT)e  of  judgment.  In  Rev.  xiv.  15, 16,  the  sickle  is  thrust 
into  the  ripe  harvest,  and  the  earth  is  reaped,  i.  e.  the  elect  are  gathered  from  the 
four  winds  of  heaven.  The  wheat  of  God  is  gathered  into  his  barn.  (Matt.  xiii.  30.) 
After  this  reaping  of  the  earth  the  sickle  is  applied  to  the  clusters  of  the  vine,  and 
they  are  cast  into  the  great  winepress  of  the  wrath  of  God.  (Rev.  xiv.  18-20.) 
This  is  judgment.  In  Joel  iii.  13,  the  ripe  harvest  is  the  harvest  of  the  vine,  i.  e. 
the  grapes  fit  for  gathering,  as  appears  bj'  the  context.  In  Jer.  li.  33,  the  act  of 
threshing  the  corn  upon  the  floor,  not  the  harvest,  is  the  image  of  judgment.  It 
is  true  the  burning  of  the  tares  in  our  Saviour's  parable  (Matt,  xiii.),  is  a  work  of 
judgment,  and  of  the  time  of  harvest,  previous  to  the  binding  of  the  sheaves  ;  but 
it  is  an  accidental  adjunct  of  the  business,  not  the  harvest  itself" — It  may  be  a 
question  whether  the  manner  in  which  he  makes  our  parable  fit  into  his  scheme  is 
quite  satisfactory. 

*  Augustine  :  Andes  usurpare  officium  alienum,  quod  nee  in  messe  erit  tuum  ? 
And  Cyprian  (with  reference  to  2  Tim.  ii.  20,  21)  :  Nos  operam  demus  et  quantiim 
possumus,  laboremus,  ut  vas  aureum  et  argenteum  simus.  Cseterum  fictilia  vasa 
confringere  Domino  soli  concessum  est,  cui  et  virga  ferrea  data  est.  Jerome 
)Adv.  Lucif.) :  Nemo  potest  Christi  palmam  sibi  assumere,  nemo  ante  diem 
judicii  de  hominibus  judicare.  Si  jam  mundata  est  Ecclesia,  quid  Domino  reser- 
vamus  1 

t  Ta  (TKwSaXa.  'S.Ko.uSaXov  (in  its  older  form  aKavSd.\7)Srpov)  is  that  part  of  a 
trap  or  snare  on  which  the  bait  is  placed,  and  which  being  touched  by  the  animal, 
gives  Avay,  and  causes  the  snare  to  draw  suddenly  tight ;  then,  generally,  a  snare. 
In  the  New  Testament,  it  is  transferred  to  spiritual  things,  and  includes  whatever, 
entangling  as  it  were  men's  feet,  might  cause  them  to  fall ;  it  is  therefore  =  Trpiio-- 
Kofifj-a.  On  account  of  its  derivation  it  is  nearly  allied  to  Trayis  and  Sirjpa,  and  we 
find  it  used  together  with  them,  Rom.  xi.  9. 

X  Augustine  explains  this  something  in  the  fashion  of  Dante's  hell,  in  which  the 
wicked  of  one  Rind  are  gathered  into  one  place ;  for  on  this  gathering  into  bundles, 
he  says  :  Hoc  est,  rapaces  cum  rajiacibus,  adulteros  cum  adulteris,  homicidas  cum 
homicidis,  fures  cum  furibus,  dcrisores  cum  derisoribus,  similes  cum  similibus. 


THE  TARES.  89 

nom,  where  carcasses  were  cast  out  that  from  time  to  time  were  consumed 
with  fire  ;  here  from  that  most  fearful  of  all  forms  of  punishment,  one  not 
indeed  in  use  among  the  Jews,  for  we  must  look  at  David's  act  (2  Sam. 
xii.  31)  as  an  excess  of  severity,  but  one  with  which  they  were  not  unac- 
quainted, that  is,  death  by  fire.  (Gen.  xxxviii.  24.)  It  was  in  use  among 
the  Chaldeans  ( Jer.  xxix.  22 ;  Dan.  iii  6),  and  in  the  Jewish  tradition, 
which  is  probably  of  great  antiquity,  Nimrod  cast  Abraham  into  a  fur- 
nace of  fire,  for  refusing  to  worship  his  false  gods,  and  in  modern  times 
Chardin  makes  mention  of  furnaces  with  a  like  object  in  Persia.*  That 
dreadful  punishment  by  fire  supplies  the  image  here,  and  doing  so, 
makes  exceedingly  improbable  the  explanation  which  some  have  given  of 
the  gnashing,  which  they  rather  understand  as  a  chattering,  of  the  teeth, 
— that  it  is  the  expression  of  the  pain  arising  from  excessive  cold,t  so 
that  they  imagine  a  kind  of  Dantean  hell,  with  alternations  of  cold  and 
heat,  alike  unendurable.  But  the  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth  are 
evidently  no  more  than  expressions  of  rage  and  impatience  (Acts  vii. 
54),  under  the  sense  of  intolerable  pain  and  unutterable  loss. 

But  after  it  has  been  thus  done  with  the  wicked,  "  tlien  shall  the 
righteous  shine  forthX  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their  Father."     As 

*  Voy.  en  Perse,  Langlfe's  ed.,  v.  6,  p.  118.  ' 

t  See  SuicER.  s.  v.  $pvyn6s,  which  some  make=Tpi(r;U({s  oBSvtwv,  but  it  is  sim- 
pler to  say  with  Bernard  :  Fletus  ex  dolore,  stridor  dentium  ex  furoi-e  ;  for  in  Cy- 
prian's words  {Ad  Dcmet.) :  Erit  tunc  sine  fructu  pcenitentias  dolor,  pcenas  inanis 
ploratio,  ct  incfficax  deprecatio.  See  Ambrose,  JExp.  in  Laic,  1.  7,  c.  205,  206,  and 
Gerhard,  Loc.  Theoll.,  1.  31,  c.  6,  (^  46. 

X  'EK\dfx\f/ovffiv,  in  which  full  force  is  to  be  given  to  the  preposition.  Schlensner 
indeed  says, — Pariim  differt  k  simplici  Kii/xircc, — but  Passow  very  diftorently, — Iler- 
vorstralilon.  sich  i)l6tzlich  in  aller  Herrlichkcit  hcrvorthun.  There  are  two  beau- 
tiful similitudes  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias  (1.  3,  sim.  3  and  4),  engaged  in  setting 
forth  the  same  truth,  though  under  a  different  image.  The  Seer  is  shown  in  the 
first  a  number  of  trees,  all  which,  wliile  it  is  winter,  are  alike  without  their  leaves, 
and  seeming  therefore  to  him  all  alike  dead ;  and  he  is  told  that  as  the  dry  and  the 
green  trees  are  not  distinguishable  from  one  another  in  the  M-inter.  while  all  alike 
are  leafless  and  bare,  so  neither  in  the  present  age  are  the  just  from  sinners.  In 
the  second,  he  is  again  shown  the  trees,  but  now  some  of  them  are  putting  forth 
leaves,  while  others  are  still  remaining  bare.  Thus  shall  it  be  in  the  future  age, 
which  for  the  just  shall  be  a  summer,  and  they  shall  be  declared  openly,  while 
their  hidden  life  shall  then  manifest  itself;  but  for  the  sinners  it  shall  still  be  win- 
ter, and  they,  remaining  without  leaf  or  fruit,  shall  as  dry  wood  be  cut  down  for 
the  burning.  The  resemblance  between  these  visions  and  singularly  beautiful  pas- 
sages in  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  xxxvi.  2,  and  in  Ps.  cxlviii.  13),  where  exactly 
the  same  image  is  used,  is  very  remarkable  ;  and  again  he  says  of  the  Christian  as 
he  is  now  {In  Ep.  Joh.  Tract.  5),  Gloria  ejus  occulta  est ;  ciim  venerit  Dominus. 
tunc  apparebit  gloria.  Viget  enim,  scd  adhuc  in  liycme ;  viget  radix,  sed  quasi 
aridi  sunt  rami.  Intus  est  medulla  qua;  viget.  intus  sunt  folia  arborum,  intus  fruc- 
tus :  sed  ajstatcm  expectant.    Compare  Minucius  Felix  (p.  329,  ed.  Ouzel.)  :  Ita 


90  THE  TARES. 

fire  was  the  element  of  the  dark  and  cruel  kingdom  of  hell,  so  is  light 
of  the  pure  heavenly  kingdom.*  Tlien^  when  the  dark  hindering  ele- 
ment is  removed,  shall  this  element  of  light  which  was  before  struggling 
with  and  obstructed  by  it,  come  forth  in  its  full  brightness.  (See  Col. 
iii.  3;  Rom.  viii.  18;  Prov.  xxv.  4,  5.)  A  glory  shall  be  revealed  in 
the  saints :  it  shall  not  merely  be  brought  to  them,  and  added  from  with- 
out ;  but  rather  a  glory  which  they  before  had,  but  which  did  not  before 
evidently  appear,  shall  burst  forth  and  show  itself  openly,  as  did  the 
Lord's  hidden  glory  once  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  at  the  moment  of  his 
Transfiguration.  That  shall  be  the  day  of  the  manifestation  of  the  sons 
of  God ;  they  shall  shine  forth  as  the  sun  when  the  clouds  are  rolled 
away  {Dan.  xii.  3) ;  they  shall  evidently  appear  and  be  acknowledged 
by  all  as  the  children  of  light,  of  that  God  who  is  "  the  Father  of 
Lights."!  (Jam.  i.  17.)  And  then,  but  not  till  then,  shall  be  accom- 
plished those  glorious  prophecies  which  are  so  often  repeated  in  the  Old 
Testament, — ''  Henceforth  there  shall  no  more  come  into  thee  the  un- 
circumcised  and  the  unclean."  (Isai.  Iii.  1.)  "In  that  day  there  shall 
be  no  more  the  Canaanite  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  (Zech. 
xiv.  21.)  "Thy  people  also  shall  be  all  righteous."  (Isai.  Ix.  21.) 
Compare  Isai.  xxxv.  8;  Joel  iii.  17;  Ezek.  xxxvii.  21-27;  Zeph, 
iii.  13. 

corpus  in  seculo  nt  arbores  in  hiberno,  occultant  virorem  ariditate  mentita..  Quid 
festiuas  ut  cruda.  adhuc  hieme  reviviscat  et  redeat  %  Expectandum  nobis  etiam 
corporis  ver  est. 

*  It  is  exactly  thus  that  in  the  Maliommedan  Theology,  the  good  angels  are 
compact  of  light,  and  the  evil  ones  of  fire. 

t  Calvin  :  Insignis  consolatio,  quod  filii  Dei  qui  nunc  vel  squalore  obsiti  jacent. 
vel  latent  nullo  in  pretio,  vel  etiam  probris  cooperti  sunt,  tunc  quasi  s-ereno  coelo, 
et  discussis  omnibus  nebulis,  verfe  et  ad  liquidura  semel  conspicui  fulgebunt :  suos 
in  sublime  attollet  Filius  Dei,  et  omnem  fuliginem  absterget,  quS.  nunc  eonuu 
fulgor  obruitur. — It  is  the  saying  of  a  Jewish  expositor  of  Ps.  Ixxii. :  Quemadmo- 
diim  Sol  et  Luna  illuminant  hoc  seculum,  ita  futm-um  est  ut  justi  illuminent  secu- 
lum  futurum. 


III. 

THE    MUSTARD   SEED. 

Matt.  xiii.  31,  32;  Mark  iv.  30-32 ;  Luke  xiii.  18.  19. 

This  parable,  and  the  one  that  follows,  would  seem,  at  first  sight,  merely 
repetitions  of  the  same  truth ;  but  here,  as  in  every  other  case,  upon 
nearer  inspection,  essential  differences  reveal  themselves.  The  other, 
of  tlie  Leaven,  is  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  "  cometh  not 
with  observation  ;"  this  is  concerning  that  same  kingdom  as  it  displays 
itself  openly,  and  cannot  be  hid  :  that  declares  the  intensive,  this  the  ex- 
tensive, development  of  the  Gospel.  That  sets  forth  the  power  and 
action  of  the  truth  on  the  world  brought  in  contact  with  it, — this  the 
power  of  the  truth  to  develope  itself  from  within  itself, — how  it  is  as  the 
tree  shut  up  within  the  seed,  which  will  unfold  itself  according  to  the 
inward  law  of  its  own  being.  Both  have  this  in  common,  that  they  de- 
scribe the  small  and  slight  beginnings,  the  gradual  progress,  and  the 
final  marvellous  increase  of  the  Church, — how,  to  use  another  image,  the 
stone  cut  out  without  hands,  should  become  a  great  mountain,  and  fill 
the  whole  earth.  (Dan.  ii.  34,  35.) — Chrysostom*  traces  finely  the  con- 
nection between  this  parable  and  all  that  has  gone  before.  In  the  para- 
ble of  the  Sower,  the  disciples  had  heard  that  three  parts  of  the  seed 
sown  perished,  and  only  a  fourth  part  prospered ;  again,  they  had  heard 
in  that  of  the  Tares,  and  of  the  further  hinderances  which  beset  even 
this  part  that  remained :  lest  then  they  should  be  tempted  quite  to  lose 
heart  and  to  despair,  the  Lord  spake  these  two  parables  for  their  encou- 
ragement. My  kingdom,  he  would  say,  will  survive  these  losses,  and 
surmount  these  hinderances,  until,  small  as  its  first  beginnings  may  ap- 

*  So  also  Lyaer,  with  more  immediate  reference  to  the  question  with  which 
the  parable  is  introduced  in  St.  Mark  (iv.  30)  :  CCim  ca  sit  Evangelii  sors,  ut  tarn 
multa  t'jus  fructura  impediant.  et  eidein  Satanas  tot  modis  insidictur,  ut  vix  fruc- 
tus  alinuis  sperari  po.s.sit,  quid  do  illo  dicemus  1  poteritne  in  rcruni  naturft.  aliquid 
inveniri,  quod  ejus  exilitatem  excusare,  illudquc  coutcmptu  vindicare  queatl 


Q2  THE  MUSTARD  SEED. 

pear,  it  will,  like  a  mighty  tree,  fill  the  earth  with  its  branches, — like 
potent  leaven,  diffuse  its  influence  through  all  the  world.        • 

The  comparison  which  he  uses,  likening  the  growth  of  his  kingdom 
to  that  of  a  tree,  was  one  with  which  many  of  hi.s  hearers  may  have  been 
already  familiar  from  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  growth 
of  a  worldly  kingdom  had  been  set  forth  under  this  image  (Dan.  iv. 
10-12;  Ezek.  xxxi.  3-9),*  that  also  of  the  kingdom  of  Grod.  (Ezek.  x. 
vii.  22-24  ;  Ps.  Ixxx.  8.)t  But  why,  it  may  be  asked,  is  a  mustard  tree| 
here  chosen  as  that  with  which  the  comparison  shall  be  made  ?  Many 
nobler  plants,  as  the  vine,  or  taller  trees,  as  the  cedar,  might  have  been 
named.  But  this  is  chosen,  not  with  reference  to  its  ultimate  greatness, 
but  with  reference  to  the  proportion  between  the  smallness  of  the  seed 
and  the  greatness  of  the  plant  which  unfolds  itself  from  thence.  For 
this  is  the  point  to  which  the  Lord  calls  especial  attention, — not  its 
greatness  in  itself,  but  its  greatness  when  compared  with  the  seed  from 
whence  it  springs ;  since  what  he  desired  to  set  before  his  disciples  was 
— not  merely  that  his  kingdom  should  be  glorious,  but  that  it  should  be 
glorious  despite  its  weak  and  slight  and  despised  beginnings.  Nor,  in- 
deed, was  the  mustard  seed,  though  in  appearance  so  trivial,  altogether 
without  its  significance  and  acknowledged  worth  in  antiquity.  It  ranked 
among  the  nobler  Pythagorean  symbols,^  it  was  esteemed  to  possess 
medicinal  virtues  against  the  bites  of  venomous  creatures,  and  against 
poisons,  and  was  used  as  a  remedy  in  many  diseases.  ||     Nor  can  I,  with 

*  See  Havernick,  Comm.  ilb.  Daniel,  p.  139. 

t  In  a  striking  poem,  found  in  the  Appendix  to  Fell's  Cyprian,  the  growth  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  under  the  figure  of  tliat  of  a  tree,  is  beautifully  set  forth. 
The  religious  reverence  with  which  all  antiquity  was  accustomed  to  look  upon 
trees  (see  Creuzer's  Symbolik,  third  edit.  v.  4,  p.  621,)  should  not  here  be  left  out 
of  mind. 

X  The  most  accurate  inquiries  of  naturalists  would  seem  to  point  out  as  the 
mustard-tree  of  this  parable,  not  that  which  goes  by  this  name  in  "Western  Europe, 
but  the  Salvadora  Persica,  commonly  called  in  Syria  now,  khardal.  So  Dr.  Lind- 
ley  in  his  Mora  Judica;  and  see  in  the  Atkcnccmn  of  March  23, 1844,  an  interesting 
paper  by  Dr.  Royle.  read  before  the  Asiatic  Society.  Captains  Irby  and  Mangles, 
describing  this  khardal,  say,  "  It  has  a  pleasant,  though  a  strongly  aromatic  taste, 
exactly  resembling  mustard,  and  if  taken  in  any  quantity,  produces  a  similar  irri- 
tability of  the  nose  and  eyes."  There  is  on  the  other  hand  a  learned  discussion  in 
the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  June  1844,  calling  in  question  Dr.  Royle's  conclusions  ; 
but  not  seriously  shaking  them. 

{)  Plin.,  H.  N.,  1.  20,  c.  87. 

II  Pliny  {Ibid.')  Plautus  applies  to  it  a  harder  epithet,  sinapis  scelerata,  because 
of  its  sharpness  which  draws  tears  from  the  eyes ;  and  Columella's  line  is  often 
quoted : 

Seque  lacessenti  fletum  factura  sinapis. 

Yet  this  too  may  be  a  part  of  its  fitness  here.    For  neither  is  the  Gospel  all  sweets, 
but  may  be  compared  to  the  mustard  seed,    iiri^aKvovaav  a)^e\iiJ.a)s  tV  ^^X^"- 


THE  MUSTARD  SEED.  93 

a  modern  interpreter,  find  any  thing  so  very  ridiculous  in  the  supposi- 
tion, that  the  Saviour  chose  this  seed  on  account  of  further  qualities 
which  it  possessed,  that  gave  it  a  peculiar  aptness  to  illustrate  the  truth 
which  he  had  in  hand.  Its  heat,  its  fiery  vigor,  the  fact  that  only 
through  being  bruised  it  gives  out  its  best  virtues,  and  all  this  under  so 
insignificant  an  appearance,  and  in  so  small  a  compass,  may  well  have 
moved  liim  to  select  this  image  under  which  to  set  forth  the  destinies  of 
the  word  of  the  kingdom, — of  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Kedeemer, 
which,  though  to  the  Greeks  foolishness,  and  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block,  should  prove  to  them  that  believed  "  the  power  of  God  unto  sal- 
vation."* 

Yet  is  it  not  Christ's  doctrine  merely,  nor  yet  even  the  Church  which 
he  planted  upon  earth,  that  is  signified  by  this  grain  of  mustard  seed. 
He  is  himself  the  grain  of  mustard  seed.f  For  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
or  the  Church,  was  originally  inclosed  in  him,  and  from  him  unfolded 
itself,  having  as  much  oneness  of  life  with  him  as  the  tree  with  the  seed 
in  which  it  was  originally  shut  up,  and  out  of  which  it  grew.  He  is  at  once 
the  sower  and  the  seed  sown :  for  by  a  free  act  of  his  own  will,  he  gave 

(Clem.  Alex.,  Strom.,  1.  5.)  The  comparison  is  carried  out  to  a  greater  length  in 
the  liomily  of  an  uncertain  author :  Sicut  sinapis  granum  cum  sumiraus,  vultu  con- 
tristaniur,  fronte  contrahimur,  ad  lacrimas  permovcmur,  et  ijjsam  salubritatem 
cor))oris  nostri  ciun  quodam  fletu  austeritatis  accipimiis,  .  .  .  ita  ergo  et  cum  fidei 
Christian.e  mandata  percipimus,  contristamur  animo.  affligimur  corpore,  ad  lacri- 
mas pormovemur.  et  ipsam  salutem  nostram  cum  quodam  fletu  ac  moerore  conse- 
quimur.  Moreover,  tliat  its  active  energy,  wliich  in  tliese  quotations  is  noted, 
will  make  it  as  apt  an  emblem  of  the  good  as  the  ill ;  and  as  such  it  was  used, 
according  to  eastern  tradition,  by  Alexander  the  Great ;  for  when  Darius  sent  him 
a  barrc-l  full  of  sesame,  to  acquaint  him  with  the  number  of  his  soldiers,  he  sent  a 
bag  full  of  mustard  seed  in  return,  to  indicate  the  active,  fiery,  biting  courage  of 
his.  (D'Herbkt.ot.  BMloth.  Orient.,  s.  v.  Escander.) 

*  Thus  the  author  of  a  Sermon  which  has  been  attributed  to  Augustine  {Serm 
87,  Appendix)  and  to  Ambrose  :  Sicut  enim  granum  sinapis  prima  fronte  speciei 
suae  est  parvuni  vile,  despectum,  non  saporem  praestans,  non  odorem  circumferens, 
non  indieans  suavitatem  :  at  ubi  teri  caeperit,  statim  odorem  suum  fundit,  acrimo- 
niam  i-xliibet  cibum  flammei  sajjoris  exhalat,  et  tanto  fervoris  calore  succenditur, 
ut  mirum  .sit  in  tam  frivolis  [granis]  tantum  ignem  fuisse  conclusum,  ...  ita  ergo 
et  fides  Christiana  prima  fronte  videtur  esse  parva,  vilis,  et  tenuis,  non  potentiam 
suam  ostendens.  non  superbiam  pncferens.  non  gratiam  subministrans.  There  is 
great  fitness  and  beauty  in  the  occasion  upon  which  this  sermon  was  preached, 
namely,  tlie  martyrdom  of  St.  Laurcntius.  the  manner  of  whose  death  is  well 
known. — There  is  much  also  that  is  instructive,  with  somewhat  merely  fanciful, 
in  the  remarks  which  Ambrose  {Exp.  in  Lalc.  1.  7,  c.  176-186)  makes  on  this 
parable. 

t  vSee  a  fragment  of  Irenaeus  (p.  347.  Bened.  ed.,)  who  also  notes  how  the  mus- 
tard seed  was  .seKjeted  for  its  fiery  and  austere  qualities  (ri  Tri^^^o/cej  koX  aixrrrjphy). 
So  Tertullian,  Adv.  Marc,  1.  4,  c.  30. 


94  THE  MUSTARD  SEED. 

himself  to  that  death,  whereby  he  became  the  author  of  life  unto  many  ;* 
as  he  himself  had  said,  "  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground 
and  die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." 
(John  xii.  24.)  And  the  field  in  which  he  sowed  this  seed  was  the 
word  ; — ^'•Im  fiddi^''  or,  as  St.  Luke  expresses  it  (xiii.  19).  '•'■his  garden  ;" 
for  the  world  was  made  by  him,  and  when  he  came  unto  it,  "he  came 
unto  his  own." 

This  seed  when  cast  into  the  ground  is  '•'•the  least  of  all  seeds" — 
words  which  have  often  perplexed  interpreters,  as  there  are  many  seeds, 
as  of  poppy  or  rue,  that  are  smaller ;  yet  difiiculties  of  this  kind  are  not 
worth  making  ; — it  is  sufficient  to  know  that — Small  as  a  grain  of 
mustard-seed,  was  a  proverbial  expression  among  the  Jewsf  for  some- 
thing exceedingly  minute.  (See  Luke  xvii.  6.)  The  Lord,  in  his  popular 
teaching,  adhered  to  the  popular  language. — To  pass  on  then  to  the  thing 
signified  :  What,  to  the  eye  of  flesh,  could  be  less  magnificent,  what  could 
have  less  of  promise  than  the  commencements  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  person  of  the  Son  of  man  ?  He  grew  up  in  a  distant  and  despised 
province ;  till  his  thirtieth  year,  did  not  emerge  from  the  bosom  of  his 
family, — then  taught  for  two  or  three  years  in  the  neighboring  towns 
and  villages,  and  occasionally  at  Jerusalem ;  made  a  few  converts,  chiefly 
among  the  poor  and  unlearned ;  and  then  falling  into  the  hands  of  his 
enemies,  without  an  attempt  on  his  own  part  or  his  followers  to  release 
him,  died  the  shameful  death  of  the  cross :  such,  and  so  slight,  was  the 
commencement  of  the  universal  kingdom  of  God.  For  in  this  the  king- 
dom of  God  diff"ers  from  the  great  schemes  of  this  world ; — these  last 
have  a  proud  beginning,  a  shameful  and  a  miserable  end — towers  of 
Babel,  which  at  first  threaten  to  be  as  high  as  heaven,  but  end  in  being 
a  deserted  and  formless  heap  of  slime  and  bricks;  but  the  works  of  God, 
and  most  of  all  his  great  work,  his  Church,  have  a  slight  and  unobserved 
beginning,  with  gradual  increase  and  a  glorious  consummation.  So  is  it 
with  his  kingdom  in  the  world ;  so  is  it  with  his  kingdom  in  every  single 
heart.  The  word  of  Christ  falls  there  too,  like  a  slight  mustard  seed, 
promising  little,  but  issuing,  if  allowed  to  grow,  in  great  and  marvellous  ' 


*  Early  Christian  art  had  a  true  insight  into  this.  Didron  {Iconngraphie  Chri- 
tienne,  p.  208),  describes  this  as  a  frequent  symbol :  Le  Christ  dans  un  tombeau : 
de  sa  bouche  sort  un  arbre,  sur  les  branches  duquel  sent  les  ap6tres. 

f  So  also  in  the  Koran  {Sur.  31) :  Oh  my  son,  verily  every  matter,  whether 
good  or  bad,  though  it  be  of  the  weight  of  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  and  be  hidden 
in  a  rock,  or  in  the  heavens,  or  in  the  earth,  God  will  bring  the  same  to  light. 

X  Jerome  (Comm.  in  Matth.  in  loc.)  has  a  striking  passage  noting  the  difference 
in  this  respect,  between  the  Gospel  and  every  system  of  human  philosophy :  the 
last  promising  much  and  performing  little,  the  other  promising  little  and  perform- 
ing much :    Pra3dicatio  Evangelii  minima  est  omnibus  disciplinis.    Ad  primam 


THE  MUSTARD  SEED.  95 

results.  That  which  was  the  sthallest  of  all  seeds*  " when  it  is grcnon, 
it  is  tlie  greatest  airvong  lierbs^  and  hecoineth  a  tree,  so  that  the  birds  of 
the  air  come  and  lodge  in  t/ic  branches  thereof."  It  is  well  known  that 
in  hot  countries,  as  in  Judaea,  the  mustard-tree  attains  a  size  which  it  is 
never  known  to  reach  in  our  colder  latitudes,  sometimes  so  great  as  to 
allow  a  man  to  climb  up  into  its  branches,  though  this,  indeed,  is 
mentioned  as  a  remarkable  thing  ;t  or  to  ride  on  horseback  under  them, 
as  a  traveller  in  Chili  mentions  that  he  has  done.  And,  on  this  passage, 
Maldonatus  relates,  that  even  in  Spain  he  has  himself  seen  great  ovens 
heated  with  its  branches  ;  he  mentions  as  well  that  birds  are  exceedingly 
partial  to  the  seed,  so  that  when  it  is  advancing  to  ripeness,  he  has  often 
seen  them  lighting  in  very  great  numbers  00  its  boughs,  which,  how- 
ever, were  strong  enough  to  sustain  tl'.e  weight  without  being  broken. 
This  fact  of  the  fondness  of  birds  for  the  seeds,  and  the  manner  in 
which,  therefore,  they  congregated  in  the  branches,  was  probably  familiar 
to  our  Lord's  hearers  also.  They,  too,  had  beheld  them  lodging  in  the 
branches  of  the  tree,  whose  seed  thus  served  them  for  meat,  so  that  there 
must  have  been  a  singular  liveliness  in  the  image  which  the  parable  pre- 
sented to  their  minds. 

Neither  need  we  suppose  this  last  circumstance  inti-oduced  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  completing  the  picture,  and  presenting  it  in  a  more 
lively  maimer  to  the  eye ;  but  rather  in  the  birds  flocking  to  the  boughs 
of  the  mustard-tree  when  it  had  grown  great,  and  there  finding  shelter 
and  food  (Ezek.  xvii.  23,  "under  it  shall  dwell  all  fowl  of  every  wing"), 
we  are  to  recognize  a  prophecy  of  the  refuge  and  defence  that  should  be 
for  all  men  in  the  Church :   how  that  multitudes  should  thither  make 

quippc  doctrinam,  fidoni  non  habet  veritatis,  hominem  Deum,  Deum  mortuum,  et 
scandalum  crucis  prajdicans.  Confer  hiijuscemodi  doctrinam  dogmatibus  Pliilo- 
sophonim.  et  libris  coram,  splcndori  eloquentiae,  et  compositioni  sermonum,  et 
videbis  (juanto  minor  sit  cajteris  seminibus  semcntis  Evangelii.  Scd  ilia  cura 
creverit  nihil  mordax,  nihil  vividum,  nihil  vitale  domonstrat,  sed  totum  flaccidum, 
marciduniqne.  et  mollitum  ebuUit  in  olcra  et  in  herbas  qufe  cito  arescunt  et  cor- 
ruunt.  Ilicc  autem  praidieatio  quaj  parva  videbatur  in  principio,  cum  vel  in 
anima,  credentis,  vcl  in  toto  mundo  .sata,  fuerit,  non  exsurgit  in  olera,  scd  crcscit 
in  arborem. 

*  Kuinoel's  is  an  inaccurate  remark,  that  here  ixiKpirepov  is  a  comparative  for  a 
superlative,  since  it  is  the  following  iravTuv  which  justifies  and  explains  its  u.se  (see 
Mark  iv.  32 ;  John  x.  29 ;  Ephes.  iii.  8) ;  if  I  say  that  a  man  is  better  than  all  men, 
I  say,  indeed,  that  he  is  the  best ;  but  I  do  not  use  a  comparative  for  a  superlative. 
So  neither  Virgil :  Scelere  ante  alios  immanior  omnes  ;  nor  the  author  of  the  old 
Latin  epitaph,  in  which  these  words  occur:  Omnium  feminarum  .sanction.  This 
would  not  be  worth  observing,  save  as  an  example  of  the  loose  attribution  to  the 
New  Testament,  of  ungrammatical  forms,  which  is  a  most  serious  hindrance  to  all 
accurate  interpretation.    See  Winer's  Grammalilc,  p.  221.) 

•(■  LiGHTKOOT,  Hor.  Ileb.,  in  loc. 


96  THE  MUSTARD  SEED. 

their  resort,  finding  their  protection  from  worldly  oppression,  as  well  as 
the  satisfaction  for  all  the  needs  and  wants  of  their  souls  ;*  and  proving 
true  the  words  of  the  son  of  Sirach  (xiv.  20,  26,  27),  "  Blessed  is  the 
man  that  doth  meditate  good  things  in  Wisdom.  .  .  .  He  shall  set  his 
children  under  her  shelter,  and  shall  lodge  under  her  branches ;  by  her 
he  shall  be  covered  from  heat,  and  in  her  glory  shall  he  dwell."  Theo- 
phylact  concludes  his  exposition  of  the  parable  with  this  practical  appli- 
cation :  "  And  be  thou  also  such  a  grain  of  mustard, — small,  indeed,  in 
appearance,  for  it  becomes  thee  not  to  make  a  spectacle  of  thy  virtue, 
but  fervent,  and  zealous,  and  energic,  and  armed  to  reprove." 

*  Augustine  {Serm.  44,  9.  2) :  Crevit  Ecclesia,  crediderunt  gentes,  victi  sunt 
terra}  principes  sub  nomine  Christi,  ut  essent  victores  in  orbe  terrarum.  Perse- 
quebantur  antfe  Christianos  pro  idolis,  persequuntur  idola  propter  Christum.  Omnes 
confugiunt  ad  auxilium  Ecclesise,  in  omni  pressure.,  in  omni  tribulations  snk. 
Crevit  illud  granum  sinapis,  veniunt  volatilia  cceli,  superbi  sseculi,  et  acquiescunt 
sub  ramis  ejus. 


«^v/ 


X!-U',r/ 


IV. 
THE   LEAVEN. 

Matthew  xlii.  33 ;   Luke  xiii.  20,  21. 

This  parable  relates  also  to  the  marvellous  increase  of  the  kingdom  of 
God ;  but  while  the  last  set  forth  its  outward  visible  manifestation,  this 
declares  its  hidden  mysterious  working  ;  and  not  merely  its  development 
from  within  itself,  but  its  influence  on  the  world  which  it  touches  upon 
all  sides.  The  mustard  seed  does  not  for  some  while  attract  observation, 
nor,  till  it  has  gi'own  to  a  consideruble  size,  do  the  birds  of  the  air  light 
upon  its  branches  ;  but  the  active  working  of  the  leaven  has  been  from 
the  very  beginning,  from  the  moment  that  it  was  hidden  in  the  lump. 
It  might  indeed  be  said  against  this  or  any  other  scheme  which  should 
expound  the  leaven  in  a  favorable  sense,  that  it  is  most  frequently  used 
in  the  Scripture  as  the  symbol  of  something  evil.  ( 1  Cor  v.  7  ;  Luke  xii. 
1 ;  Gal.  V.  9.)  This  is  undoubtedly  true,  and  being  this,  it  was  forbidden, 
in  the  offerings  under  the  Law  (Exod.  xiii.  3 ;  Lev.  ii.  11:  Amos  iv.  5), 
though  not  without  an  exception.  (Lev.  xxiii.  17.)  The  strict  command 
to  the  people,  that  they  should  carefully  put  away  every  particle  of 
leaven  out  of  their  houses,  during  the  Passover  week,  rests  on  this  view 
of  it  as  evil :  they  were  thus  reminded  that  they  needed  to  put  away 
from  their  hearts  all  workings  of  malice  and  wickedness,  if  they  would 
rightly  keep  the  spiritual  feast.*     When  leaven  is  thus  used  in  an  evil 

*  Sec  our  Collect  for  the  First  Sunday  after  Easter.— The  Jews  termed  the  fig- 
mentum  malum,  that  in  man  which  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  hinders  him 
from  doing  the  things  that  he  would,  the  leaven  in  the  lump,  and  the  reason  is 
given  in  the  hook  Sohar :  Prava  concupiscentia  vocatur  fermentum,  quia  i)arum 
«jus  cor  pervadit,  ct  in  tantum  exturgescit,  ut  findatur  pectus.  (See  Schokttgen's 
Hor.  Hcb..  V.  1,  p.  597.)  The  Romans  had  the  same  di.slike  to  the  use  of  leaven  in 
sacred  things :  Farinam  fermento  imhutam  attingere  flumini  Diali  fas  non  est. 
{GcU.  X.  15,  19.)  Plutarch  {Qiucsf.  Horn.  109),  gives  no  doubt  the  true  explana- 
tion: ■The  leaven  itself  is  horn  from  corruption,  and  corrupts  the  mass  with 
which  it  is  mingled."  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  &pTOi  Kodapol  is  used  as=dif«;/io». 
7 


I 


f 


¥ 


98  THE  LEAVEN. 

sense,  its  tendencies  to  make  sour  and  to  corrupt  are  those  which  come 
most  prominently  forward.  Yet,  because  such  is  its  most  frequent  use 
in  Scripture,  there  needs  not,  therefore,  to  interpret  the  parable,  as 
Gurtler,*  Teelman,t  and  also  some  little  bands  of  modern  separatists! 
(whose  motive,  of  course,  is  obvious)  have  done,  as  though  it  were  a 
prophecy  of  the  heresies  and  corruptions,  which  should  mingle  with  and 
adulterate  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Gospel, — as  though  it  were,  in  fact, 
a  prophecy  of  the  workings  of  the  future  mystery  of  iniquity.  These 
expositors  make  the  Woman  to  be  the  apostate  church,  which,  witn  its 
ministers,  they  observe  is  often  represented  under  this  image.  (Prov. 
ix.  13;  Rev.  xvii.  1;  Zech.  v.  7-11.)  The  last  of  these  passages  Teelman 
asserts  to  be  an  exact  parallel  to  the  parable  before  us.  If  this  inter- 
pretation were  the  true  one, — if  it  could  be  said  that  at  any  time  the 
whole  Church  was  thus  penetrated  through  and  through  with  the  leaven 
of  false  doctrine,  the  gates  of  hell  would,  indeed,  have  prevailed  against 
it ;  and  from  whence  it  should  ever  have  become  unleavened  again,  it 
is  difficult  to  understand. 

But  the  unquestionable  fact,  that  leaven  is,  in  Scripture,  most  com- 
monly the  type  of  something  false  and  corrupting,  need  not  drive  us  into 
any  such  embarrassment.  It  was  not,  therefore,  the  less  free  to  use  it  in  a 
good  sense.  In  those  other  passages,  its  puffing  up,  distributing,  souring 
properties,  were  the  prominent  points  of  comparison ;  in  the  present,  its 
warmth,^  its  penetrative  energy,  the  power  which  a  little  of  it  has  to 
lend  its  savor  and  its  virtue  to  much  wherewith  it  comes  in  contact. 
The  great  features  of  the  figurative  language  of  Scripture  remain  no 
doubt  fixed  and  unalterable ;  but  it  is  not  thus  stereotyped  in  its  minor 
details,  so  that  one  figure  needs  always  to  stand  for  one  and  the  same 


f  So  Jerome  {Ep.  31)  gives  the  reason  why  honey  was  forbidden  in  the  Levitical 

offerings  (Lev.  ii.  11) ;  Apud  Deiim  enim  nihil  vohiptuosum,  nihil  tantum  suave 
placet ;  nisi  quod  in  se  habet  nnordacis  ahquid  veritatis.     These  omissions  had 
1^  doubtless  the  same  symbohcal  meaning,  as  the  casting  away  of  the  gall  among  the 

Romans  in  the  victims  offered  to  the  nuptial  Juno. — It  was  the  feeling  of  the  un- 
suitableness  of  leaven  m  sacris  which,  in  part,  caused  the  Latin  Church  to  contend 
so  earnestly  against  the  use  of  fennented  bread  in  the  Eucharist,  calling  those  who 
used  it,  Fcrmentarii,  though  there  was  an  historical  interest  also  mingling  in  the 
question.  (See  Augusti,  Handb.  d.  Christl.  Archaol,  v.  2,  p.  662.) 

*  Syst.  TIicol.  Prophet.,  p.  590.  , 

t  Comm.  in  Laic.  16,  p.  59,  seq. — Vitringa  gives,  with  great  impartiality,  two 
entirely  independent  expositions  of  the  Parable,  taking  first  the  leaven  in  a  good, 
then  in  an  evil  sense,  but  decides  absolutely  for  neither. 

X  Brief  E.rposition  of  Matthao  xiii.,  by  J.  N.  Darby,  1845,  p.  40.  He  makes  in 
the  same  way  the  parable  of  the  mustard  seed  to  be  a  prophecy  of  the  upgrowth 
of  a  proud  world-hierarchy. 

<^  Zvfji.ri  from  fe'co,  as  fermentum  (=fervimentum)  from  fervo  :  leaven,  in  French 
levain,  from  Icvare,  to  lift  up. 


THE  LEAVEN.  99 

thing.  The  devil  is  "  a  roaring  lion,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour " 
(1  Pet.  V.  8) ;  yet  this  does  not  hinder  the  same  title  from  being  applied 
to  Christ,  "  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  "  (Rev.  v.  5) ;  only  there  the 
subtlety  and  fierceness  of  the  animal  formed  the  point  of  comparison, 
here  the  nobility  and  kingliness  and  conquering  strength.*  Cyrilf  then 
certainly  goes  too  far,  and  could  scarcely  have  had  this  parable  in  his 
mind,  when  he  says :  "  Leaven,  in  the  inspired  writings,  is  always  taken 
as  the  type  of  naughtiness  and  sin."  Ignatius  shows  rather  by  his  own 
application  of  the  image,  how  it  may  be  freely  used,  now  in  a  good,  now 
in  a  bad  sense ;  for  warning  against  Judaizing  practices,  he  writes : 
"  Lay  aside  the  evil  leaven  which  has  grown  old  and  maketh  sour,  and 
be  transmuted  into  the  new  leaven,  which  is  Christ  Jesus. "|  Nor  is  it 
to  be  forgotten  that  if,  on  one  side,  the  effects  of  leaven  on  meal  present 
an  analogy  to  something  evil  in  the  spiritual  world,  they  do  also  on  the 
other,  to  something  good,  as  it  is  universally  agreed  that  its  effects 
on  bread  are  to  render  it  more  tasteful,  lighter,  and  more  nourishing, 
and  generally  more  wholesome. 

There  is  no  need,  then,  to  take  the  parable  in  other  than  its  obvious 
sense,  that  it  is  concerning  the  diffusion,  and  not  the  corruptions,  of  the 
Gospel ;  by  the  leaven  we  are  to  understand  the  word  of  the  kingdom, 
which  Word,  in  its  highest  sense,  Christ  himself  was.  As  the  mustard- 
seed,  out  of  which  a  mighty  tree  was  to  grow,  was  the  least  of  all  seeds, 
so  the  leaven  is  also  something  apparently  of  slight  account,  and  yet,  at 
the  same  time,  mighty  in  operation.  Thus,  too,  of  Christ  it  was  said, 
"  He  hath  no  form  nor  comeliness,  and  when  we  shall  see  him  there  is 
no  beauty  that  we  should  desire  him  ;'^  but  then  presently  again,  "  By 
his  knowledge  shall  my  righteous  Servant  justify  many,  .  .  .  and  he 
shall  divide  the  spoil  with  the  strong"  (Isai.  liii.  2,  11,  12);  and  when 
he  had  communicated  of  his  life  and  spirit  to  his  apostles,  they  too,  in 
their  turn,  poor  and  mean  and  unlearned  as  they  were,  became  the  salt 
of  the  earth,  the  leaven  of  the  world.  For,  in  Chrysostom's  words,  "  that 
which  is  once  leavened  becomes  leaven  to  the  rest ;  since  as  the  spark 
when  it  takes  hold  of  wood,  makes  that  which  is  already  kindled  to 
transmit  the  flame,  and  so  seizes  still  upon  more,  thus  it  is  also  with  the 
preaching  of  the  word."^ 

*  See  AnccsTiNE  (Scrm.  73,  c.  2) :  Quod  enim  tara  distat  ad  invicem,  qu&.m 
Christns  et  Diabolus  1  Tamen  leo  ct  Chri.stus  est  appellatus,  et  Diabolus.  .  .  .  Ille 
leo,  profiter  fortitudincm  :  ille  leo,  propter  feritatem.  Ille  leo  ad  vincendum :  ille 
leo,  ad  nocendum.     Cf.  Scrvi.  32,  c.  6. 

t  Hovi.  Paschal.,  19. 

:|:  Ad  Miisncs.,  10.  Cf.  Gregory  Naz.  {Oral.  36,  c.  90),  who  says  that  Christ 
by  his  Incarnation  sanctified  men,  Suntfp  (v/xr)  yevSixevos  r^  wavrl  <pvpdfj.aTi,  Kcd  -irphs 
iavrhy  fvtiffas. 

^  In  Matth.,  Horn.  46;  see  also  Con.  Ignaviam,  Horn.  3.  2.   So  Cajctan:  Christi 


100  THE  LEAVEN. 

Is  it  only  a  part  of  the  suitable  machinery  of  the  parable,  that  the 
act  of  kneading  being  proper  to  women,  it  should  be  here  said,  that  it 
was  "  a  woman  "  who  took  the  leaven,  and  hid  it  in  the  three  measures 
of  meal  ?  or  may  we  look  for  something  more  in  it  than  this  ?  A 
comparison  with  Luke  xv.  8,  the  woman  who  had  lost  and  found  her 
piece  of  money,  may  suggest  that  the  Divine  Wisdom,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  is  the  sanctifying  power  in  humanity,  (and  it  is  of  that  sanctifying 
that  the  word  is  here,)  may  be  meant.  But  if  it  be  asked,  why  as  a 
woman  ?  to  this  it  may  be  replied,  that  the  organ  of  the  Spirit's  working 
is  the  Church,  which  evidently  would  be  most  fitly  represented  under 
this  image.  In  and  through  the  Church  the  Spirit's  work  proceeds : 
only  as  he  dwells  in  the  Church  (Rev.  xxii.  7),  is  it  able  to  mingle  a 
nobler  element  in  the  mass  of  humanity,  to  leaven  the  world. — So  again, 
why  should  three  measures  of  meal  be  mentioned  ?  It  may  perhaps  be 
sufficiently  answered,  Because  it  was  just  so  much  as  at  one  time  would 
be  commonly  mixed.  (Gren.  xviii.  6 ;  Judg.  vi.  19  ;  1  Sam.  i.  24.)*  Yet 
it  may  be  that  we  should  attach  a  further  significance  to  this  number 
three.  Some  perceive  in  it  allusion  to  the  spread  of  the  Grospel  through 
the  three  parts  then  known  of  the  world :  others  again,  as  Augustine,  to  the 
ultimate  leavening  of  the  whole  human  race,  derived  from  the  three  sons 
of  Noah  ;  which  is  nearly  the  same  thing.  And  those  who,  like  Jerome 
and  Ambrose,  find  in  it  a  pledge  of  the  sanctification  of  spirit,  soul,  and 
body,  are  not  upon  a  difi"erent  track,  if  indeed,  as  has  not  been  ill 
suggested,  Shem,  Japhet,  and  Ham,  do  indeed  answer  to  these  three 
elements,  spirit,  soul,  and  body,  which  together  make  up  the  man — the 
one  or  other  element  coming  into  predominance  in  the  descendants 
severally  of  the  three. 

But  leaving  this,  we  may  observe  how  the  leaven  is  at  once  difi'erent 
from,  and  yet  acting  upon,  the  lump ;  for  the  woman  took  it  from  else- 
where to  mingle  it  therein :  and  even  such  is  the  Gospel,  a  kingdom  not 
of  this  world  (John  xviii.  36),  not  the  unfolding  of  any  powers  which 
already  existed  in  the  world, — a  kingdom  not  rising  as  those  other 
kingdoms  "out  of  the  earth"  (Dan.  vii.  17),  but  a  new  power  brought 
into  the  world  from  above,  not  a  philosophy,  but  a  Revelation.  The 
Gospel  of  Christ  was  a  new  and  quickening  power  cast  in  the  midst  of 
an  old  and  dying  world,  a  centre  of  life  round  which  all  the  energies 
which  survived,  and  all  which  itself  should  awaken,  might  form  and 
gather; — by  the  help  of  which  the  world  might  renew  its  youth. t — And 

discipuli,  prima  regni  cselorum  membra,  spiritu  penetra,runt  corda  hominum,  cru- 
daque  ac  acerba  ad  maturitatcm  ac  saporem  caelestis  vitse  promoverunt. 

*  In  the  two  last  places,  the  Septuagint  has  rpia  fierpa. 

t  Augustine,  in  whose  time  the  fading  away  of  all  the  glory  of  the  ancient 


THE  LEAVEN.  10] 

it  is  observable,  that  this  leaven  is  said  not  merely  to  have  been  mingled 
with,  but  hidden  in  the  mass,  on  which  its  influence  was  to  be  exerted. 
The  true  renovation,  that  which  God  eff"ects.  is  ever  tlius  from  the  inward 
to  the  outward ;  it  begins  in  the  invisible  spiritual  world,  though  it  ends 
not  there ;  for  there  beginning,  it  yet  fails  not  to  bring  about,  in  good 
time,  a  mighty  change  also  in  the  outward  and  visible  world.  This  was 
wonderfully  exemplified  in  the  early  history  of  Christianity.  The 
leaven  was  efiectually  hidden.  A  remarkable  evidence  of  this  is  the 
entire  ignorance  which  heathen  writers  betray  of  all  that  was  going 
forward  a  little  below  the  surface  of  society, — the  manner  in  which  they 
overlooked  the  mighty  change  which  was  preparing,  and  this  not  merely 
at  the  first,  when  the  mustard-tree  might  well  escape  notice,  but,  with 
slight  exceptions,  even  up  to  the  very  moment  when  the  triumph  of 
Christianity  was  at  hand.  The  leaven  was  hidden,  yet,  by  degrees,  it 
made  itself  felt,  till  at  length  the  whole  Roman  world  was.  more  or  less, 
leavened  by  it.  Nor  must  we  forget,  that  the  mere  external  conversion 
of  that  whole  world  gives  us  a  very  inadequate  measure  of  the  work 
which  had  to  be  done :  besides  this,  there  was  the  eradication  of  the 
innumerable  heathen  practices  and  customs  and  feelings  which  had 
enwoven  and  entwined  their  fibres  round  the  very  heart  of  society,  a 
work  which  lagged  very  considerably  behind  the  other,  and  which,  in 
fact,  was  never  thoroughly  accomplished,  till  the  whole  structure  of 
Roman  society  had  gone  to  pieces,  and  the  new  Teutonic  framework 
had  been  erected  in  its  room. 

But  while  much  has  thus  been  effected,  while  the  leavening  of  the 
mass  has  never  ceased  to  go  forward,  yet  the  promise  of  the  parable  has 
hitherto  been  realized  only  in  a  very  imperfect  measure,  and  we  cannot 
consider  these  words  '■^till  the  whole  is  leavened"  as  less  than  a  prophecy 
of  a  final  complete  triumph  of  Christianity ;  that  it  will  diffuse  itself 
through  all  nations,  and  purify  and  ennoble  all  life.  And  we  may  also 
fairly  see  in  these  words  a  promise  and  an  assurance  that  the  word  of 
life,  received  into  any  single  heart,  shall  not  there  cease  its  eftectual 
working,  till  it  has  brought  the  whole  man  in  obedience  to  it,  sanctify-    ^ 

world  was  daily  becoming  more  apparent  (mundus  tanta,  rerum  labe  contritus,  ut 
etiam  speciem  seductionis  amiserit).  delighted  to  contemplate  and  to  present  the 
coming  of  Christ  under  this  aspect.  Thus  Scrvi.  81 :  Parum  tibi  praestitit  Deus, 
quia  in  senectute  mundi  misit  tibi  Christum,  ut  tunc  te  reficiat,  quando  omnia 
deficiimt  1  .  .  .  Venit  eClm  omnia  veterascercnt.  et  novum  t«  fecit.  Res  facta,  res 
condita,  res  peritura  jam  vergebat  in  occasam.  Necesse  erat  ut  abundaret  la- 
boribus  :  venit  ille,  et  consolari  tc  inter  labores,  et  proniittcre  tibi  in  .seniijiternum 
quietem.  Noli  adhajrerc  velle  seni  mundo.  et  nolle  juvenesccre  in  Christo.  qui 
tibi  dieit ;  Perit  nnindus  senescit  mundus.  deficit  mundus.  laborat  anhelitu  seneo- 
tutis.     Noli  timcre,  renovabitur  juventus  tua  sicut  aquilaj. 


102  THE  LEAVEN. 

ing  him  wholly,  so  that  he  shall  be  altogether  a  new  creation  in  Christ 
Jesus.*  It  shall  claim  every  region  of  man's  being  as  its  own,  and  make 
itself  felt  in  all.  In  fact,  the  parable  does  nothing  less  than  set  forth  to 
us  the  mystery  of  regeneration,  both  in  its  first  act,  which  can  be  but 
once,  as  the  leaven  is  but  once  hidden;  and  also  in  the  consequent 
renewal  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  which,  as  the  ulterior  working  of  the  leaven, 
is  continual  and  progressive.  This  side  of  the  truth  is  that  exclusively 
brought  out  by  Hammond,  who  thus  paraphrases  our  Lord's  words : 
'•  The  Gospel  hath  such  a  secret  invisible  influence  on  the  hearts  of  men, 
to  change  them  and  affect  them,  and  all  the  actions  that  flow  from  them, 
that  it  is  fitly  resembled  to  leaven,  so  mixed  thoroughly  with  the  whole, 
that  although  it  appeareth  not  in  any  part  of  it  visibly,  yet  every  part 
hath  a  tincture  from  it."  We  may  fitly  conclude,  in  the  words  of  St. 
Ambrose :  "  May  the  Holy  Church,  which  is  figured  under  the  type  of 
this  woman  in  the  Gospel,  whose  meal  are  we,  hide  the  Lord  Jesus  in 
the  innermost  places  of  our  hearts,  till  the  warmth  of  the  Divine  wisdom 
penetrate  into  the  most  secret  recesses  of  our  souls. "f 

*  Corn,  a  Lapide  quotes  from  an  earlier  commentator  :  Dicit  autem.  Donee  fer- 
mentatem  est  totum,  quia  charitas  in  mente  nostra  recondita  eo  usque  crescere 
debet  ut  totam  mentem  in  sui  perfectionem  commutet,  quod  hie  quidem  inchoatur, 
in  futuro  vero  perficitur. 

t  Exp.  in  Laic,  1.  7,  c.  187. — Clemens  of  Alexandria  (p.  693,  Potter's  ed.)  gives 
an  admirable  exposition  of  the  parable,  and  in  very  few  words.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven,  he  says,  is  likened  to  leaven,  on  rj  (Vx^'s  tov  A6yov  ctvuto/xos  oZcra  kolL  Suwttj, 
iravra  rhv  Karade^a/xevov  Kal  evrhs  eavTov  KTyiffd/xeyov  avT^f,  ^inKeKpvfi(jiivu)S  re  Kol 
a<[>ayus  irphs  eaurV  €Ak€»,  koI  rb  irw  avrov  els  ivSrriTa  (Twdyu. 


V. 

THE   HID   TREASURE. 

Matthew  xiii.  4. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  merely  a  general,  it  is  also  an  individual, 
thing ;  it  is  not  merely  a  tree  overshadowing  the  earth,  leaven  leavening 
the  world,  but  each  man  must  have  it  for  himself,  and  make  it  his  own 
by  a  distinct  act  of  his  own  will.  He  cannot  be  a  Christian  without 
knowing  it.  He  may  come  under  the  shadow  of  this  great  tree,  and  par- 
take of  many  blessings  of  its  shelter.  He  may  dwell  in  a  Christendom 
which  has  been  leavened,  and  so  in  a  manner  himself  share  in  the  univer- 
sal leavening.  But  more  than  this  is  needed,  and  more  than  this  in  every 
elect  soul  will  find  place.  There  will  be  a  personal  appropriation  of  the 
benefit,  and  we  have  the  history  of  this  in  these  two  parables*  which 
follow.  They  were  spoken,  not  to  the  multitude,  not  to  those  "  without," 
— but  within  the  house,  and  to  the  more  immediate  disciples.  These 
are  addressed  as  having  found  the  hid  treasuref — the  pearl  of  price ; 
and  are  now  warned  of  the  surpassing  worth  of  these,  and  that,  for  their 
sakcs,  all  things  are  to  be  joyfully  renounced.  The  second  pai-able  does 
not  merely  repeat  what  the  first  has  said,  but  repeats  it  with  a  difference. 
The  two  arc  each  the  complement  of  the  other :  so  that  under  one  or 
other,  as  finders  either  of  the  pearl  or  hid  treasure,  may  be  ranged  all 


*  Origen  {Covim.  in  Matth.)  observes  that  these  would  more  fitly  be  called 
similitudes  {buoiians)  than  parables,  which  name,  he  says,  is  not  given  to  them  ia 
the  Scripture  :  yet  see  ver.  53. — For  a  series  of  these  briefer  parables  as  in  use 
among  the  Jews,  see  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  pp.  83-8.5. 

t  Qh}<javpis,  i.  e.  ffwaywy^  XP''?/"''''''^*'  K(Kpvfj.fj.(VTi,  as  an  old  Lexicon  cx]ilains  it. 
Neither  of  the  derivations  greatly  coninicnd  tliemselves ;  not  tI^/j-i  and  aZpov= 
auruin,  the  receptacle  of  gold,  since  the  word  avpov  seems  not  so  old  as  ^(xaupSs 
itself  and  that  from  rt^/ui  ds  aiiptov,  that  i)ut  by  for  to-morrow,  is  artilieial. — The 
Jurisconsnlt  Pauliis  gives  its  legal  definition,  Thesaurus  est  tarn  vetus  depositio 
pecuniae,  ut  ejus  non  exstet  memoria,  et  jam  domiuum  non  habeat. 


104  THE  HID  TREASURE. 

who  become  partakers  of  the  rich  treasures  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  For 
these,  it  may  be,  are  persous  who  feel  that  there  must  be  some  absolute 
good  for  man,  in  the  possession  of  which  he  shall  be  blessed,  and  find 
the  satisfaction  of  all  his  longings,  and  who  are,  therefore,  seeking  every- 
where and  inquiring  for  this  good.  Such  are  likened  to  the  merchant 
that  has  distinctly  set  before  himself  the  purpose  of  seeking  goodly 
pearls.  These  are  the  fewest  in  number,  but  at  the  same  time,  perhaps, 
the  noblest  converts  to  the  truth.  Again,  there  are  others,  who  do  not 
discover  that  there  is  an  aim  and  a  purpose  for  man's  life, — that  there 
is  a  truth  for  him  at  all,  until  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  is  revealed  to 
them.  Such  are  likened  to  the  finder  of  the  hid  treasure,  who  stumbled 
upon  it  unawares,  neither  expecting  nor  looking  for  it.  While  the 
others  knew  that  there  was  a  good,  and  were  looking  for  it,  the  discovery 
of  the  good  itself  is  the  first  thing  that  reveals  to  these  that  there  is 
such  at  all ;  whose  joy,  therefore,  as  greater, — being  the  joy  at  the  dis- 
covery of  an  unlooked-for  treasure, — is  expressed  ;  that  of  the  other,  not. 
Thus  Hammond,  bringing  out  this  distinction,  paraphrases  the  two  pa- 
rables thus  :  "  The  Grospel  being  by  some  not  looked  after,  is  yet  some- 
times met  with  by  them,  and  becomes  matter  of  infinite  joy  and  desire  to 
them :  and  so  is  likened  fitly  to  a  treasure,  which  a  man  finding  casually 
in  a  field,  hid  again,  or  concealed  it,  and  then,  designing  to  get  into  his 
possession,  accounts  no  price  he  can  pay  too  dear  for  it.  Others  there 
are  which  have  followed  the  study  of  wisdom,  and  thirsted  after  some 
instruction :  and  then  the  Gospel  of  Christ  comes  as  a  rich  prize  doth 
to  a  merchant,  who  is  in  pursuit  of  rich  merchandise,  and  meeting  with 
a  jewel  for  his  turn,  lays  out  all  his  estate  upon  it." 

The  cases  of  Jew  and  Gentile  will  respectively  exemplify  the  con- 
trast between  the  Pearl  and  the  Hid  Treasure ;  though  of  course,  in  the 
case  of  the  Jews,  or  the  chiefest  part  of  them,  the  example  cannot  be 
carried  through,  as  they,  though  seeking  the  pearl,  having  a  zeal  for 
righteousness,  yet,  when  the  pearl  of  great  price  was  offered  to  them, 
were  not  willing  to  sell  all, — to  renounce  their  peculiar  privileges,  their 
self-righteousness,  and  all  else  that  they  held  dear,  that  they  might  buy 
that  pearl.  The  Gentiles,  on  the  contrary,  at  least  the  greater  number 
of  them,  came  upon  the  treasure  unawares.  Christ  was  found  of  them 
that  sought  him  not,  and  the  blessings  of  his  Gospel  revealed  to  them 
who  before  had  not  divined  that  there  were  such  blessings  for  man.* 


*  Grotius :  Doctrina  Evangclica  quihusdam  affulsit,  ncqtie  dc  Deo.  ncque  de 
vita,  emendanda..  neque  de  spe  vitse  alteriiis  quicquam  cogitantibus,  quales  erant 
pleriqiie  in  gentibiis  externis.  qiiibus  ilhid  vaticinium  Pauhi.s  aptat :  Inventu.s  sum 
non  quaM-cntibiis  me.  Erant  et  sapiential  stndiosi  inter  Juda^o.s  et  alibi,  qui  veri- 
tatis  cognoscendiu  desiderio  quodam  tangebantur,  quive  Prophetara  aliquem  aut 


THE  HID  TREASURE.  105 

Or  again,  we  might  instance  Nathanael,  as  an  example  of  the  more  re- 
ceptive nature, — of  one  who  has  the  truth  found  for  him ;  or  a  still  more 
striking  example, — the  Samaritan  woman  (John  iv.),  who  was  thinking' 
of  any  thing  more  than  of  lighting  on  the  hid  treasure,  when  she  came  to 
draw  water  from  the  well.  Yet  in  this  character,  there  cannot  be  a  total 
absence  of  seeking  for  the  truth  ;  only  it  is  a  desire  that  has  hitherto 
slumbered  in  the  soul,  and  displays  itself  rather  as  a  love  of  the  truth 
when  revealed,  and  at  once  a  joyful  and  submissive  acquiescence  to  it, 
than  in  any  active  previous  quest.  In  both,  there  must  be  the  same 
willingness  to  embrace  it,  when  it  is  known,  and  to  hold  it  fast  at  all 
costs  and  hazards.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have,  perhaps,  no  such  pic- 
ture of  a  noble  nature,  seeking  for  the  pearl  of  price,  and  not  resting 
till  he  had  found  it,  as  that  which  Augustine  gives  of  himself  in  his  Con- 
fessions ;  though  we  also  have  many  more,  such  as  Justin  Martyr's  ac- 
count of  himself,  in  his  first  dialogue  with  Trypho,  when  he  tells  how  he 
had  gone  through  the  whole  circle  of  Greek  philosophy,  seeking  in  vain 
for  something  which  would  satisfy  the  longings  of  his  soul,  and  never 
finding  what  he  wanted,  till  he  found  it  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  circumstance  which  supplies  the  groundwork  of  this  first  para- 
ble, namely,  the  finding  of  a  concealed  treasure,  must  have  been  of 
much  more  frequent  occurrence  in  an  insecure  state  of  society,  such  as 
in  almost  all  ages  has  been  that  of  the  East,  than  happily  it  can  be  with 
us.  A  writer  on  Oriental  literature  and  customs,  mentions  that  in  the 
East,  on  account  of  the  frequent  changes  of  dynasties,  and  the  revolu- 
tions which  accompany  them,  many  rich  men  divide  their  goods  into 
three  parts :  one  they  employ  in  commerce,  or  for  their  necessary  sup- 
port ;  one  they  turn  into  jewels,  which,  should  it  prove  needful  to  fly, 
could  be  easily  carried  with  them  ;  a  third  part  they  bury.  But  while 
they  trust  no  one  with  the  place  where  the  treasure  is  buried,  so  is  the 
same,  should  they  not  return  to  the  spot  before  their  death,  as  good  as 
lost  to  the  living  (compare  Jer.  xli.  8),  until  by  chance,  a  lucky  pea- 
sant, while  he  is  digging  his  field,  lights  upon  it.     So  that  when  we  read 


ipsum  etiara  Messiam  avidis  animis  expectabant.  Priores  respicit  thesauri  com- 
paratio,  postcriores  ista  de  unione.  Bengcl  recognizes  the  same  distinction :  In- 
ventio  thesauri  non  prajsupponit  rh  qua!rere,  ut  margaritnc.  qua)  j)ercontatione  inve- 
niuntur.  Alex.  Knox,  in  his  Reviains  (v.  1,  p.  416,  seq.)  has  very  excellent  remarks 
to  tlie  same  effect.  There  is  rather  a  confirmation  of  this  in  the  forms  which  the 
two  jiarables  assume.  In  this  the  treasure  is  the  prominent  circumstance  : — '  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  treasure."  Now  if  the  other  had  heen  cast  in  the 
.same  mould,  it  would  have  been  said,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  pearl ; 
but  not  so,  it  is  •'  like  unto  a  merchant-man  ;"  so  that  the  person  seeking  is  there 
at  the  centre  of  the  spiritual  picture,  the  thing  found,  here.  This  is  scarcely 
accidental. 


106  THE  HID  TREASUEE. 

in  Eastern  tales,  how  a  man  has  found  a  buried  treasure,  and,  in  a  mo- 
ment, risen  from  poverty  to  great  riches,  this  is,  in  fact,  an  occurrence 
that  not  unfrequently  happens,  and  is  a  natural  consequence  of  the  cus- 
toms of  these  people.*  Modern  books  of  travels  continually  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  universal  belief  in  the  existence  of  such  hid  treasures ;  so 
that  the  traveller  often  finds  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  information 
about  antiquities,  and  is  sometimes  seriously  inconvenienced,  or  even 
endangered,  in  his  researches  among  ancient  ruins,  by  the  jealousy  of 
the  neighboring  inhabitants,  who  fear  lest  he  is  coming  to  carry  away 
concealed  hoards  of  wealth  from  among  them,  of  which,  by  some  means 
or  other,  he  has  got  notice.  Another  evidence  of  this  widespread  belief 
is,  that  part  of  the  skill  of  an  Eastern  magician  should  consist  in  being 
able  to  detect  the  places  where  these  secreted  treasures  will  successfully 
be  looked  for  f  Often,  too,  a  man  abandoning  the  regular  pursuits  of 
industry,  will  devote  himself  to  treasure-seeking,  in  the  hope  of  growing, 
through  some  happy  chance,  rich  of  a  sudden.  J  (See  Job  iii.  21 ;  Prov. 
ii.  4.)  The  contrast,  however,  between  the  present  parable  and  the  fol- 
lowing, noticed  already,  renders  it  unlikely  that  in  the  present  we  are 
to  assume  the  finder  to  have  been  in  search  of  the  treasure  ;  he  rather 
stumbles  upon  it  unawares,^  probably  while  he  is  engaged  as  a  hireling 
in  cultivating  another  man's  field. 

Some,  in  the  interpretation,  draw  a  distinction  between  the  field  and 
the  treasure ;  making  the  first  to  be  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  the  second, 
the  hidden  mystery  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  contained  in  them,|| 
which  when  a  man  has  partly  perceived, — discovered,  that  is,  and  got  a 
glimpse  of  the  treasure,  he  is  willing  to  renounce  all  meaner  aims  and 

*  Richardson  {Dissert,  on  the  Languages,  if-c,  of  Eastern  Nations,  p.  180) ; 
quoted  by  Rosenmiiller  {Alte  und  Neue  Morgenland,  v.  5,  p.  197).  Compare  the 
strange  story  told  by  Tacitus,  Annal.,  1.  16,  1-3. 

t  See  Burder's  Oriental  Literature,  v.  1,  p.  275 ;  and  for  evidence  of  the  same 
in  old  time,  Becker's  Charikles,  v.  1,  p.  224. 

X  The  reader  of  Plato  will  remember  his  admirable  words  De  Lcgg.,  1.  11, 
p.  913. 

§  Such  a  treasure,  in  a  field,  would  naturally  be  most  often  foimd  quite  unex- 
pectedly ;  as  Horace  :  0  si  urnam  argenti  fors  qua  inihi  monstret ; — it  would  often 
be  turned  up  l)y  the  husbandman  engaged  in  digging  or  ploughing,  and  thinking 
of  no  such  thing.     O  si  sub  rastro  crepet  argenti  raihi  seria  !  (Persius.) 

II  So  Jerome  {Comm.  in  Matth.,  in  loc):  Thesaurus  iste,  .  .  .  sanct^  Scripturae 
in  quibus  reposita  est  notitia  Salvatoris ;  and  Augustine  {Quccst.  Evang.,  1.1, 
qu.  13) :  Thcsaurum  in  agro  absconditum,  dixit  duo  Testamenta  Lcgis  in  Ecclcsia,, 
quae  quis  c6ra  ex  parte  intellectfts  attigerit,  sentit  illic  magna  latere,  et  vadit  et 
vendit  omnia  sua,  et  emit  agrura  ilium,  id  est,  contemtu  temporalium  coraparat  sibi 
otium,  ut  sit  dives  cognitione  Dei.  Alex.  Knox  has  an  ingenious  view  of  the  rela- 
tion between  the  treasure  and  the  field  which  contains  the  treasure,  in  his  Remains, 
v.  1,  p.  418. 


THE  HID  TREASURE.  107 

objects ;  that  having  leisure  to  search  more  and  more  into  those  Scrip- 
tures, to  make  them  his  own,  he  may  become  rich  in  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  which  therein  is  contained.  Yet  to  me  the  field  rather  repre- 
sents the  outer  visible  Church,  as  contradistinguished  from  the  inward 
spiritual,  with  which  the  treasure  would  then  agree.  As  the  man  who 
before  looked  on  the  field  with  careless  eyes,  prized  it  but  as  another 
field,  now  sees  in  it  a  new  worth,  now  determines  that  nothing  shall 
separate  him  from  it, — so  he  who  recognizes  the  Church,  not  as  a 
human  institute,  but  a  divine, — as  a  dispenser,  not  of  earthly  gifts,  but 
of  heavenly, — who  has  learned  that  God  is  in  the  midst  of  it, — sees  now 
that  it  is  something  different  from,  and  something  more  than,  all  earthly 
societies,  with  which  hitherto  he  has  confounded  it :  and  henceforth  it  is 
precious  in  his  sight,  even  to  its  outermost  skirts,  for  the  sake  of  its  in- 
ward glory,  which  is  now  revealed  to  his  eyes.  And  he  sees,  too,  that 
blessedness  is  unalterably  linked  to  communion  with  it ;  as  the  man 
cannot  have  the  treasure  and  leave  the  field,  but  both  or  neither  must 
be  his,  so  he  cannot  have  Christ  except  in  his  Church ;  none  but  the 
golden  pipes  of  the  sanctuary  are  used  for  the  conveyance  of  the  golden 
oil  (Zech.  iv.  12) ;  he  cannot  have  Christ  in  his  heart,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  separate  his  fortunes  from  those  of  Christ's  struggling,  suf- 
fering, warring  Church :  the  treasure  and  the  field  go  together ;  both  or 
neltlier  must  be  his. 

But  not  to  anticipate  the  progress  of  the  parable, — this  treasure 
"  ivJien  a  man  hath  found,  lie  hideth ;"  having  laid  it  open  in  the  disco- 
very, he  covers  it  up  again,  while  he  goes  and  effects  the  purchase  of 
the  field.  By  these  words  it  cannot,  of  course,  be  meant  that  he  who 
has  discovered  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  that  are  hidden  in 
Christ  Jesus,  will  desire  to  keep  his  knowledge  to  himself,  since  rather 
he  will  feel  himself,  as  he  never  did  before,  a  debtor  to  all  men,  to  make 
all  men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery  that  is  hid  in  Christ. 
He  will  go  like  Andrew  to  his  brother  man,  and  say  to  him,  "  We  have 
found  the  Messias,"  and  will  seek  to  bring  him  to  Jesus.  If  he  hide  the 
treasure,  that  will  be,  not  lest  another  should  find  it,  but  lest  he  himself 
should  lose  it.*  In  the  first  moments  that  the  truth  is  revealed  to  a  soul, 
there  may  well  be  a  tremulous  fear  lest  the  blessing  found  should,  by 
some  means  or  other,  escape  from  it  again ;  the  anxiety  that  it  may  not 

*  Maldonatus :  Non  ne  alius  invcniat,  sed  ne  ipse  perdat:  Jerome  (Cowjwt.  m 
Matth..  inloc.):  Non  quod  hoc  de  invidia  faciat.  sed  quod  timore  sen-antis  et 
nolentis  j)crdcre.  abscondit  in  corde  suo  quem  prist inis  prastulit  facultatibus.  H. 
de  Sto.  Victore  has  a  somewhat  different  explanation  {Dc  Area  Mor.,  1.  3,  c.  6)  : 
Thesaurum  inventum  manifestat,  qui  acceptum  donum  Sapientiae  in  ostentatione 
portat.  Thesaurum  autem  inventum  abscondit,  qui  accepto  dono  Sapientise  non 
foris  in  oculis  hominum,  sed  intus  coram  Deo  inde  gloriari  quaerit. 


108  THE  HID  TREASURE. 

do  so,  and  precautions  for  this  end  taken,  would  seem  to  be  the  truth 
signified  by  this  re-concealment  of  the  treasure  found. — Having  thus 
secured  it  for  the  moment,  the  finder,  '■'•for  jo^j  tliereof*  goeth  and  selleth 
all  thtU  lie  luiili,  and  biiyclh  that  field  :"  the  joy  is  expressly  mentioned 
here,  being  that  in  the  strength  of  which  the  finder  of  the  spiritual  trea- 
sure is  enabled  to  go  and  sell  all  that  he  hath  ;t  no  compulsion,  no 
command  is  necessary ;  for  joy  thereof  he  cannot  do  otherwise ;  all 
other  things  have  now  no  glory,  "by  reason  of  the  glory  which  ex- 
celleth." 

Augustine  excellently  illustrates  this  part  of  the  parable.  Describ- 
ing the  crisis  of  his  own  conversion,  and  how  easy  he  found  it,  through 
this  joy,  to  give  up  all  those  pleasures  of  sin  that  he  had  long  dreaded  to 
be  obliged  to  renounce,  which  had  long  held  him  fast  bound  in  the  chains 
of  evil  custom,  and  which  if  he  renounced,  it  seemed  to  him  as  though 
life  itself  would  not  be  to  be  endured,  he  exclaims :  "  How  sweet  did  it 
at  once  become  to  me,  to  want  the  sweetness  of  those  toys  !  and  what  I 
feared  to  be  parted  from  was  now  a  joy  to  part  with.  For  thou  didst 
cast  them  forth  from  me,  thou  true  and  highest  sweetness.  Thou  castedst 
them  forth,  and,  for  them,  enteredst  in  thyself,  sweeter  than  all  pleasure. "J: 
The  parting  with  those  other  delights,  which  had  hitherto  held  him  bound, 
was,  in  Augustine's  case,  the  selling  all  that  be  had,  that  he  might 
buy  the  field.  Compare  Phil.  iii.  4-11,  where  St.  Paul  declares  to  us 
how  he  too  sold  all  that  he  had,  renounced  his  trust  in  his  own  right- 
eousness, in  his  spiritual  and  fleshly  privileges,  that  he  might  "  win 
Christ  and  be  found  in  him."  In  each  of  these  illustrious  instances,  the 
man  parted  with  the  dearest  thing  that  he  had,  so  to  make  the  treasure 
his  own :  though,  in  each  case,  how  different  was  the  thing  parted  with  ! 
So,  too,  whenever  any  man  renounces  the  thing  that  is  closest  to  him, 
rather  than  that  should  be  a  hinderance  to  his  embracing  and  making  his 
own  all  the  blessings  of  the  Grospel, — when  the  lover  of  money  renounces 
his  covetousness, — and  the  indolent  man,  his  ease, — and  the  lover  of 
pleasure,  his  pleasure, — and  the  wise  man,  his  confidence  in  the  wisdom 
of  this  world,  then  each  is  selling  what  he  has  that  he  may  buy  the  field 
which  contains  the  treasure.  When  the  Lord  says  (Matt.  x.  37-39), 
"~^  "  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me,"  &c., 
he  is,  in  fact,  exhorting  to  this  selling  of  all  that  we  have  ;  see  also  Matt. 

*  'ATrb  TTis  xap^s  outoD.  But  perhaps  rather  "for  his  joy"  (ottJ*  ttjs  x"^"^ 
avTov . 

•f  Bengel :  Gaudium  spirituale,  stimulus  abnegandi  mundum. 

\  Confess.,  1.  9,  c.  1 :  Qu&,ra  suave  mihi  subito  factum  est  carere  suavitatibuS' 
nuganim,  et  quas  amittere  inctus  fuerat,  jam  dimitt^re  gaudium  erat.  Ejiciebas 
enim  eas  a  me,  vera  tu  et  summa  suavitas,  ejiciebas  et  intrabas  pro  els,  omni  volup- 
tate  dulcior. 


THE  HID  TREASURE.  109 

xvi.  24  ;  and  Mark  ix.  43-48,  where  the  same  command  is  given.  And 
yet.  in  the  present  case,  it  is  not  merely  a  command ;  it  is  not  to  be  con- 
sidered as  an  arbitrary  condition,  imposed  from  without,  but  rather  a  de- 
lightful constraint,  acknowledged  witliiu  :  even  as  a  man  would  willingly 
fling  down  pebbles  and  mosses,  which  hitherto  he  had  been  gathering, 
and  with  which  he  had  filled  his  iiands,  if  pearls  and  precious  stones 
were  offered  to  him  ;*  or  as  the  dead  leaves  easily  and  as  of  themselves 
fall  off  from  the  tree,  when  propelled  by  the  new  blossoms  and  buds 
which  are  forcing  their  way  from  behind. 

But  a  diflBculty  has  been  sometimes  found  in  the  circumstance  of  the 
finder  of  the  treasure  going  and  buying  the  field. f  keeping  back,  as  it  is 
evident  that  he  did,  from  the  owner,  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  which  en- 
hanced its  value  so  greatly,  that  either  he  would  not  have  parted  with  it  at 
all,  or  only  at  a  much  higher  price.  They  argue  that  it  is  against  the  de- 
corum of  the  divine  teaching  and  of  the  Divine  Teacher,  that  an  action, 
morally  questionable  at  least,  if  not  absolutely  unrighteous,  should  be  used 
even  for  the  outward  setting  forth  of  a  spiritual  action  which  is  commend- 
ed and  urged  upon  others  as  worthy  of  imitation  ;  that  there  is  a  certain 
approbation  of  the  action  conveyed,  even  in  the  very  use  of  it  for  such 
ends  ;  in  fact,  they  find  the  same  difficulty  here  as  in  the  parables  of  the 
Unjust  Steward,  snd  the  Unjust  Judge.  01shausen.|  so  far  from  evad- 
ing the  difficulty,  or  seeking  to  rescue  the  present  parable  from  underlying 
the  same  difficulty,  as  undoubtedly  cleaves  to  one  of  those,  himself  brings 
forward  the  likeness  existing  between  the  two,  and  affirms  that,  in  both, 
prudence  (Klugheit)  with  regard  to  divine  things,  is  commended ;  so  that 
they  are  parables  of  the  same  class,  and  in  this  respect,  at  least,  contain- 

*  Augustine  :  Ecce  petis  i  Deo,  et  dicis.  Domino,  da  milii.  Quid  tibi  dabit  qui 
aliunde  manu.s  tuas  vidut  occupatas "?  Ecco  Dominus  vult  dare  quae  sua  sunt,  et 
non  vldot  ubi  ponat ;  and  again  {In  1  Ep.  Joh.,  Tract.  4)  :  Bono  implendus  es, 
fundi'  niahmi.  Puta  quia  molle  te  vult  implore  Deus.  Si  aceto  plenus,  es  ubi  mel 
pones  ?  Fundendum  est  (juod  portabat  vas.  Mundandum  est,  etsi  cum  labore, 
cum  tritura  ;  ut  liat  aptum  ouidam  rci. 

t  It  is  curious  and  is  noticed  by  Vitringa  {Erklar.  d.  Parab.,  p.  235),  that  we 
shoulil  have  in  ancient  history,  an  account  almost  exactly  answering  to  that  which 
8U|)plios  the  groundwork  of  tho  present  parable.  After  Mardonius  liad  been  con- 
quered at  Plat,"Ba.  a  report  existed  that  he  had  left  great  treasures  buried  within 
the  elrcuit  where  his  tent  had  stood ;  Polycrates,  a  Theban,  buying  the  ground, 
sought  long  for  the  treasure,  but  not  finding  it,  inquired  at  Delphi,  and  was  told 
"  to  turn  every  stone  "  which  doing  he  found  it.  Such  the  proverb  collectors  give 
as  the  origin  of  the  proverb,  itavra  Klbov  nivei.  (See  the  Parcevi.  GrcEC,  Oxf.,  1836, 
p.  363.) 

X  In  liis  Biblischrr  Cummentar.  a  most  interesting  and  instructive  work,  to  which 
my  obliirations  are  large  and  frequent :  it  has  unhappily  been  left  imflnished  by 
his  death.  I  know  no  work  which  woiild  so  favorably  present  the  better  German 
theology  t«  the  English  reader,  as  would  this. 


110  THE  HID  TREASURE. 

ing  the  same  moral.  But  to  the  objection  made  above,  it  seems  enough 
to  say,  that  not  every  part  of  his  conduct  who  found  the  treasure  is  pro- 
posed for  imitation,  or  as  affording  a  point  of  comparison,*  but  only  his 
earnestness  in  securing  the  treasure  found ;  his  fixed  purpose  to  secure 
and  make  it  his  own,  at  all  costs  and  all  hazards,  and  (which,  I  suppose, 
is  Olshausen's  meaning)  his  prudence,  without  any  affirmation  that  the 
actual  manner  in  which  that  prudence  was  exercised,  was  praiseworthy 
or  not.f  « 

*  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ivii.  6) :  Won  undecunque  datur  similitudo  k  Scrip- 
turis,  laudatur  ipsa  res,  sed  tantilm  inde  similitudo  trahitur. 

•f-  In  bool^s  of  casuistry,  where  they  treat  of  the  question,  how  far  and  where  a 
finder  has  a  right  to  appropriate  things  found,  this  parable  is  frequently  adduced, 
as  by  Aquinas  {Summ.  Theol.,  1.  2,  qu.  69,  art.  o) :  Circa  res  inventas  est  distin- 
guendum.  Qusedam  enim  sunt,  quae  nunquam  fuerint  in  bonis  alicujus,  sicut  lapilli 
et  gemmae  quse  inveniuntur  in  litore  maris.  Et  talia  occupanti  conceduntur,  et 
eadem  ratio  est  de  thesauris  antiquo  tempore  sub  terra,  occultatis,  quorum  non  ex^ 
tat  aliquis  possessor :  nisi  quod  sccundilm  leges  civiles  tenetur  inventor  dare  medi- 
etatem  domino  agri  si  in  alieno  agro  invenerit.  Propter  quod  in  parabola,  dicitur 
(^Matth.  xiii.),  de  inventore  thesami,  quod  emit  agrum,  quasi  ut  haberet  jus  pcssi- 
dendi  totum  thesanrum. — We  read  of  Apollonius  of  Tyaua  (see  his  Life,  1.  2.  c.  15) 
being  called  in  to  decide  a  quarrel  between  the  buyer  and  seller  of  such  a  field,  as 
to  which  of  them  a  treasure  found  in  it  shall  belong.  He  does  not  much  help  the 
law  of  the  matter,  for  he  adjudges  it  to  whichever  of  the  parties  shall  be  found,  on 
scrutiny,  to  have  lived  in  time  past  the  holiest  life. 


YI. 
THE   PEARL. 

Mattuew  xiii.  45,  46. 

Almost  all  which  would  have  been  to  be  said  upon  this  parable,  had  it 
stood  alone,  has  been  anticipated  in  that  which  went  immediately  before. 
The  relations  in  which  the  two  stand  to  one  another  have  been  already 
noticed : — we  have  here  not  merely  a  finder,  but  also  a  seeker,  of  true 
wisdom — "  TJie  kingdom  of  God  is  like  unto  a  merclumt-man*  seeking 
goodly  pearls^''  To  find  them  has  been  the  object  of  his  labors:  "the 
search  is  therefore  determinate,  discriminative,  unremitting."  He  has  set 
his  purpose  distinctly  before  him,  and  to  that  is  bending  all  his  energies; 
he  is  one  in  fact,  who  has  felt  that  man  was  not  made  in  vain,  that  there 
must  be  a  centre  of  peace  for  him,  a  good  that  will  satisfy  all  the  crav- 
ings of  his  soul,  and  who  is  determined  not  to  rest  till  he  has  found  that 
good.  He  does  not  perhaps  yet  know  that  it  is  but  one^  for  at  his  start- 
ing he  is  seeking  many  goodly  pearls,  but  rather  perhaps  imagines  that 
it  is  to  be  made  up  and  combined  from  many  quarters :  but  this  also  will 
be  revealed  to  him  in  due  timet 

It  makes  much  for  the  beauty  of  the  parable,  and  the  fitness  of  the 
image  used  to  set  forth  the  surpassing  value  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  that 
we  keep  in  mind  the  esteem  in  which  the  pearl  was  held  in  antiquity,^ 

*  The  pearl-merchant  was  termed  margaritarius,  though  this  name  was  some- 
times also  given  to  the  diver. 

t  Augustine  {Serm.  de  Disc.  Christ.,  v.  6,  p.  683,  Bened.  ed.)  assumes  the  aiie- 
iKss  of  that  which  here  is  found  as  furnishing  another  point  of  contrast  beside  those 
already  detailed,  between  this  parable  and  the  last.  There  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  presented  as  manifold,  even  as  a  treasure  would  contain  precious  things  of  vari- 
ous kinds  laid  up  in  it:  here  it  is  presented  in  its  unity— as  much  as  to  say.  This 
which  is  so  multifold,  is  also  single  and  at  heart  but  one. 

I  Pliny:  Principium  culmcnque  omnium  renmi  pretii  margaritie  tenent :  and 
the  word  which  was  rendered  (Prov.  iii.  15 ;  xx.  15 ;  xxxi.  10)  by  earlier  translators 


112  THE  PEARL. 

so  that  there  is  record  of  almost  incredible  sums  having  been  given  for 
single  pearls,  when  perfect  of  their  kind.  There  were  many  defects 
which  materially  diminished  their  value,  as  for  instance,  if  they  had  a 
yellow  or  dusky  tinge,  or  were  not  absolutely  round  or  smooth.  The 
skill  and  wariness  which  on  this  account  the  pearl-merchant  must  have 
needed  lest  he  should  have  a  meaner  thing  put  upon  him  in  lieu  of  the 
best,  will  not  be  without  its  answer  in  the  spiritual  world.*  Origenf 
observes,  that  the  fact  of  there  being  so  many  pearls  of  an  inferior 
quality  (0oCXoi)  adds  an  emphasis  to  the  epithet  here  used.  The 
merchant  is  seeking  '•'■goodly''''  pearls,  as  he  whom  the  merchant  repre- 
sents, has  set  before  himself,  not  mean  and  poor,  but  noble  and  worthy, 
aims,  even  in  times  anterior  to  that  in  which  he  finds  the  pearl  of  price. 
He  is  not  one  living  for  sensual  objects.  He  has  not  made  pleasure,  or 
the  acquisition  of  money,  or  the  winning  of  the  high  places  of  the  world, 
the  end  of  his  labors.  But  he  has  been,  it  may  be,  a  seeker  of  wisdom, 
a  philanthropist,  a  worshipper  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  or  in  art — who 
has  hoped  to  find  his  soul's  satisfaction  in  these.  But  this  pearl  of 
price,  what  is  it,  which  at  length  he  finds  ?  Many  answers  have  been 
given,  whicli  yet,  however  they  may  seem  to  diverge  from  one  another, 
grow  out  of  one  and  the  same  root ;  all  ultimately  resolve  themselves 
into  one  \\ — the  pearl  is  the  kingdom  of  God  within  a  man, — or  God 
revealing  himself  in  the  soul, — or  the  knowledge  of  Christ,^ — or  Christ 

of  Scripture  most  commonly  as  rubies,  is  generally  believed  now  to  signify  pearls ; 
though  according  to  Winer  {Real  Worterb.,  s.  v.  Perlen)  the  question  is  still  un- 
settled. 

*  Augustine  {Serm.  37,  c.  3)  :  Discite  lapides  sestimare,  negotiatores  regni 
coelorum. 

t  Comm.  in  Matth.  (in  loc),  where  he  has  much  curious  learning  about  pearls. 
— The  theory  of  their  formation  current  in  ancient  times  is  detailed  by  him.  The 
fish  conceived  the  pearl  from  the  dew  of  heaven,  and  according  to  the  quality  of 
the  dew,  it  was  pure  and  round,  or  cloudy  and  deformed  with  specks.  (See  Plin. 
H.  N.,  1.  9,  c.  35.  Ammian.  Marcell.,  1.  23,  c.  6,  ^  85.)  The  state  of  the  atmo- 
sphere at  the  time  of  their  conception,  was  then  naturally  supposed  to  exercise  a 
great  influence  on  their  size  and  color,  and  even  the  time  of  the  day.  Thus  Isidore 
Hisp. :  Meliores  .  .  .  candidae  margaritse  quam  quaj  flavescunt :  illas  enira  aut  ju- 
ventus,  aut  matutini  roris  conceptio  reddit  Candidas  ;  has  senectus  vel  vespertinus 
a6r  reddit  obscuras.  See  also  Mr.  Greswell's  Exp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  ii.  p.  220-222; 
and  for  all  which  could  be  got  together  about  them,  Bochart's  Hierozoicon,  pars  2, 
1.  5,  c.  5-8. 

X  See  Suicer'.s  Thes..  s.  v.  fj.apyapir7is. 

^  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Annot.  in  Matth.') :  Bonje  margaritae,  lex  et  prophetse : 
una  pretiosa.  Salvatoris  scientia.  So  Origen  on  this  place  says,  the  law  and  pro- 
phets were  as  the  lamp  which  was  precious  till  the  sun  arose ;  he  has  these 
instructive  references,  Matt.  xvii.  5-8 ;  2  Cor.  iii.  10.  Schoettgen  observes  (Hor. 
Heb.,  V.  1,  p.  132)  :  Judaei  doctrinas  ct  lectiones  pulchi-as  ac  notatu  dignas  vocarunt 
margaritas : — as  in  later  Latin,  margaritum  was  a  name  of  endearment.    Von 


THE  PEARL.  X13 

himself,* — these  are  all  but  different  ways  of  expressing  the  same 
thing. 

But  when  the  merchant  had  found  this  pearl  of  price,  he  '■'•ivent  atid 
sold  all  that  he  had^  and  bought  itJ^  What  this  selling  of  all  means, 
has  been  already  observed ;  and  to  understand  what  the  buying  means, 
and  what  it  does  not  mean,  we  may  compare  Isai.  Iv.  1  ;  Matt.  xxv.  9, 
10:  Rev.  iii.  18;  and  Prov.  xxiii.  23,  "Buy  the  truth,  and  sell  it  not;" 
obtain  the  truth  at  any  price,  and  let  no  price  tempt  you  to  let  it  go. 
The  contrast  between  the  one  pearl  which  the  merchant  finds  and  the 
many  which  he  had  been  seeking,  is  here  by  no  means  to  be  ovei'looked; 
the  same  contrast  is  marked  elsewhere ;  Martha  is  troubled  about  many 
things  :  Mary  has  found  that  but  one  thing  is  needful.  (Luke  x.  41,  42.) 
There  is  but  one  such  pearl  (though  every  one  may  have  that  one),  since 
the  truth  is  one,  even  as  God  is  one ;  and  the  truth  possessed  brings 
that  unity  into  the  heart  of  man,  which  sin  had  destroyed  ;t  that  which 
through  sin  had  become  as  a  mirror  shattered  into  a  thousand  fragments, 
and  every  fragment  reflected  some  different  object,  is  now  reunited  again, 
and  the  whole  with  more  or  less  clearness  reflects,  as  it  was  intended  at 
first  to  do,  the  one  image  of  God.  It  is  God  alone  in  whom  any  intelligent 
creature  can  find  its  centre  and  true  repose ;  only  when  man  has  found 
/«m,  does  the  great  Eureka  break  forth  from  his  lips ;  in  Augustine's 
beautiful  and  often  quoted  words,  "  Lord,  thou  hast  made  us  for  thee, 
and  our  heart  is  disquieted  till  it  reacheth  to  thee."| 

Before  concluding  the  notice  of  this  parable,  it  may  just  be  worth 
while  to  mention,  were  it  only  for  its  singularity,  an  interpretation,  which 

Bohlcn  {Das  Alt.  Ind.,  v.  2,  p.  122,)  derives  margarita  from  a  Sanscrit  woi'd  man- 
a.arita. ;  sii'uifying  The  Pure.    Another  name  it  bore  signified  The  Beloved. 

*  Theopliylact  says,  that  it  was  at  a  moment  when  it  liglitened  tliat  the  con- 
ception of  the  pearl  from  the  heavenly  dew  took  place,  which  explains  an  otherwise 
ohsciu'e  passage  in  Clement  of  Alex.,  Potter's  ed.,  p.  1014,  when,  explaining  this 
parable,  he  says,  "  This  pearl  is  the  most  pellucid  and  pure  Jesus,  whom  the  Vir- 
gin conceived  from  the  divine  lightning."  Augustine,  too  {Quast.  ex  Matth.,  qu. 
13),  likens  Christ  to  the  pearl :  though  he  does  not  bring  out  this  point  of  com- 
parison :  Est  enira  Verbum  Domini  lucidum  candore  veritatis,  et  solidum  firniitate 
ajternitatis  et  imdique  sui  simile  puleritudine  divinitatis,  qui  Dens  penetrate, 
carnis  testudine  intelligendus  est.  Bochart  {Hirrozoicnn.  pars  2,  1.  5.  c.  8,  in  fine,) 
has  a  graceful  bringing  out  of  the  points  of  likeness  between  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  a  i)earl. 

t  II.  'le  Sto  Victore  :  Quia  cnim  mens  hominis  in  illo  uno  bono  stare  nohiit,  in 
quo  j)otuit  feliciter  requiescere  .  .  .  projecta  foras  extra  semetipsam,  in  nuiltii)lici- 
tatem  rerum  visibiliura  spargitur,  et  veritatem  quam  intus  caicata  i  fonte  haurire 
non  potest,  quasi  per  rivulos  quosdam  visibilium,  aresccntibus  praecordiis,  saltern 
sugcre  conatur.  These  words  are  from  a  Commentary  on  Ecclesiastes,  which  book 
itself  is  a  profoimd  commentary  on  this  parable. 

X  Fecisti  nos  propter  to,  ct  inquietum  est  cor  nostrum  donee  rcquiescat  in  te. 


114  THE  PEARL. 

strangely  reverses  the  whole  matter.  The  merchant  seeking  goodly  pearls 
is  now  Christ  himself.  The  Church  of  the  elect  is  the  pearl  of  price ; 
which  that  he  might  purchase  and  make  his  own,  he  parted  with  all  that 
he  had,  emptying  himself  of  his  divine  glory  and  taking  the  form  of  a 
servant.*  Or  yet  more  ingeniously,  the  pearl,  as  in  the  common  explana- 
tion, is  still  interpreted  as  the  heavenly  blessedness,  and  Christ  the 
merchant,  who  that  he  might  secure  that  blessedness  to  us  and  make  it 
ours,  though  he  was  so  rich,  gladly  made  himself  poor,  buying  that  pearl 
and  that  treasure, — not  indeed  for  himself,  but  for  us.f 

*  Salraeron  (Scrm.  in  Par.  Evang.,  p.  66)  applies  the  same  to  the  parable  pre- 
ceding :  Homo  qui  invenit  thesaurum,  hoc  est,  pretiosam  Ecclesiam  electorum  .  .  . 
Christus  est  qui  pro  comparando  tanto  sanctorum  thesauro  omnia  bona  sua  dis- 
traxit.     Compare  the  Brief  Exposition  of  Matth.  xiii.,  by  J.  N.  Darby,  pp.  30,  31. 

f  So  Drexelius  (Opp.,  v.  1,  p.  209)  :  Quis  verior  Christo  Domino  mercator,  qui 
pretium  sui  sanguinis  infinitum  pro  pretiosis  illis  mercibus  dedit "?  Yerb  abiitj 
vendiditque  omnia,  famam,  sanguinem,  vitam  exposuit,  ut  nobis  coelum  emeret. 


VII. 
THE   DRAW   NET. 

Matthew  xiii.  47-60. 

This  parable  would  at  first  sight  seem  to  say  exactly  the  same  thing  as 
that  of  the  Tares.  Maldonatus,  led  away  by  this  apparent  identity  of 
purpose  in  the  two,  supposes  that  St.  Matthew  has  not  related  the 
parables  in  the  order  in  which  the  Lord  spoke  them,  but  that  this 
should  have  immediately  followed  upon  that.  Here  however  he  is 
clearly  mistaken ;  there  is  this  fundamental  difference  between  them, 
that  the  central  truth  of  that  is  the  present  intermixture  of  the  good 
and  bad ;  of  this,  the  future  separation ;  of  that,  that  men  are  not  to 
effect  the  separation ;  of  this,  that  the  separation  will,  one  day,  by  Grod 
be  effected ;  so  that  the  order  in  which  we  have  them  is  evidently  the 
right  one,  as  that  is  concerning  the  gradual  development, — this,  the  final 
consummation  of  the  Church.  Olshausen  draws  a  further  distinction 
between  the  two,  that  in  that,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  represented  rather 
in  its  idea,  as  identical  with  the  whole  world,  which  idea  it  shall 
ultimately  realize ;  in  this,  rather  in  its  present  imperfect  form,  as  a 
less  contained  in  a  greater,  which  yet,  indeed,  has  this  tendency  in  itself 
to  spread  over  and  embrace  all  that  greater ; — the  sea  being  here  the 
world,  and  the  net,  the  Church  gathering  in  its  members  from  the  world, 
as  the  net  does  its  fish  from  the  sea. 

Much  of  what  has  been  already  said,  in  considering  the  Tares,  will 
apply  here.  The  same  use  has  been  made  of  either  parable ;  there  is 
the  same  continual  appeal  to  this  as  to  that  in  the  Donatist  controversy, 
and  the  present  conveys,  to  all  ages,  the  same  instruction  as  that, — 
namely,  that  the  Lord  did  not  contemplate  his  visible  Church  as  a  com- 
munion in  which  there  should  be  no  intermixture  of  evil ;  but  as  there 
was  a  Ham  in  the  ark,  and  a  Judas  among  the  twelve,  so  there  should 
be  a  Babylon  even  within  the  bosom  of  the  spiritual  Israel ;  Esau  shall 


116  THE  DRAW  NET. 

contend  with  Jacob  even  in  the  Church's  womb,*  till,  like  another 
Rebekah,  she  shall  often  have  to  exclaim,  "Why  am  I  thus?"  (Gen 
XXV.  22.)  It  conveys,  too,  the  same  lesson,  that  this  fact  does  not  justify 
self-willed  departure  from  the  fellowship  of  the  Church,  an  impatient 
leaping  over,  or  breaking  through,  the  nets,  as  it  is  often  called ;  but  the 
Lord's  separation  is  patiently  to  be  waited  for,  which  shall  surely  arrive 
at  the  end  of  the  present  age.f 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  consider  what  manner  of  net  it  is  to  which 
our  Lord  likens  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  heading  of  the  chapter 
in  our  Bibles,  it  is  called  a  draio  net,  and  the  particular  kind  is  distinctly 

*  See  Augustine,  Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxxvi.  3. 

t  The  following  extracts  will  show  the  uses,  either  practical  or  controversial,  to 
which  the  parable  was  turned.  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixiv.  6)  :  Jam  in  mari 
capti  per  retia  fidei,  gaudeamus  nos  ibi  natare  adhuc  intra  retia,  quia  adhuc  mare 
hoc  ssevit  procellis,  sed  retia  quae  nos  ceperunt  perducentur  ad  litus.  Interim 
intra  ipsa  retia,  fratres,  benfe  vivamus,  non  retia  rumpentes  foras  exeamus.  Multi 
enim  ruperunt  retia  et  schismata  fecerunt,  et  foras  exierunt.  Quia  malos  pisces 
intra  retia  captos  tolerare  se  nolle  dixerunt,  ipsi  mali  facti  sunt  potuis,  qu^m  illi 
quos  se  non  potuisse  tolerare  dixerunt. — The  curious  ballad  verses  which  are  found 
at  the  commencement  of  his  Antl-Donatist  Tracts,  and  which  he  wrote,  as  he  says, 
to  bring  the  subject  within  the  comprehension  of  the  most  unlearned,  begins  with  a 
reference  to,  and  exposition  of,  this  parable. 

Abundantia  peccatorum  solet  fratres  conturbare  ; 
Propter  hoc  Dominus  noster  voluit  nos  prasmonere, 
Comparans  regnum  ccelorum  reticulo  misso  in  mare, 
Congreganti  multos  pisces,  omne  genus  iiinc  et  inde, 
Quos  cum  traxissent  ad  litus,  tunc  coeperunt  separare, 
Bonos  in  vasa  miserunt,  reliquos  malos  in  mare. 
Q,uisquis  recolit  Evangelium,  recognoscat  cum  timore  : 
Videt  reticulum  Ecclesiam,  videt  hoc  seculum  mare, 
Genus  autem  mixtum  piscis,  Justus  est  cum  peccatore : 
Seculi  finis  est  litus,  tunc  est  tempus  separare  : 
Quando  retia  ruperunt.  multiim  dilexerunt  mare. 
Vasa  sunt  sedes  sanctorum,  quo  non  possum  pervenire. 

The  following  quotations  from  the  minutes  of  the  conference  at  Carthage  will 
show  how  the  Donatists  sought  to  evade  the  force  of  the  arguments  drawn  from 
this  parable,  and  how  the  Catholics  replied.  They  did  not  deny  that  Christ  spake 
in  this  parable  of  sinners  being  found  mingled  with  the  righteous  in  the  Church 
■upon  earth,  yet  it  was  only  concealed  sinners;  they  affirmed  {Coll.  Carlh.,  d.  3,) 
hoc  dc  reis  latentibus  dictum,  quoniam  reticulum  in  mari  positum  quid  habeat,  a. 
piscatoribus,  id  est  a.  sacerdotibus,  ignorantur,  donee  extractum  ad  litus  ad  purga- 
tionem  boni  sen  mali  prodantur.  Ita  et  latentes  et  in  Ecclesia,  constitituti,  et  h 
sacerdotibus  ignorati,  in  divino  judicio  proditi,  tanquam  pisces  mali  h.  sanctorum 
consortio  separantur.  Augustine  answers,  with  an  allusion  to  Matt.  iii.  12  {Ad 
Don.  post  Coll.,  c.  10)  :  Numquid  et  area  sub  aqua  vel  terra,  trituratur,  aut  certfe 
nocturnis  horis,  non  in  sole,  conteritur.  aut  in  ea  rusticus  cebcus  operatur  1 — It  is 
evident  that  their  reply  was  a  mere  evasion ;  that  they  took  refuge  in  an  accidental 
circumstance  in  the  parable,  namely,  that  so  long  as  the  nets  are  under  water  their 
contents  cannot  be  ^  'en,  so  as  to  avoid  being  plainly  convinced  of  schism. 


THE  DRAW  NET.  II7 

specified  by  the  word  in  the  original*  It  is  a  net  of  the  largest  size, 
suffering  nothing  to  escape  from  it ;  and  this,  its  all  embracing  nature 
is  certainly  not  to  be  left  out  of  sight,  as  an  accidental  or  unimportant 
circumstance,  but  contains  in  fact  a  prophecy  of  the  wide  reach  and 
potent  operation  of  the  Gospel.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  should  hence- 
forward be  a  net,  not  cast  into  a  single  stream  as  hitherto,  but  into  the 
broad  sea  of  the  whole  world,  and  gathering  or  drawing  together  (John 
xi.  52)  some  out  of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation. 
Or  when  it  is  said,  that  it  ^^ gathered  of  every  kind^''  we  may  understand 
both  good  and  bad.  As  the  servants  who  were  sent  to  invite  guests  to 
the  marriage  supper  (Matt.  xxii.  10),  "gathered  together  all,  as  many  as 
they  found,  both  bad  and  good ;"  so  here  the  fishers  take  fish  of  all  kinds 
within  the  folds  of  the  net ; — men  of  every  diversity  of  moral  character 
have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them,  and  find  themselves  within  the  limits 
of  the  visible  Church,  f 

*  2oy<)i/Tj  (not  as  some  derive  it,  from  eo-oi  t-ynv,  but  from  o-aTTco,  onero),  a 
hauling  net,  as  distinguished  from  the  a/jLipi^KricrTpov  or  casting  net  (Matt.  iv.  18)  ; 
in  Latin,  traguni.  tragula,  vcrriculum.  It  was  of  immense  length.  On  the  coast 
of  Cornwall,  where  it  is  now  used,  and  bears  the  same  name,  seine  or  scan,  a  cor- 
ruption of  the  Greek,  which  has  come  to  us  through  the  Vulgate  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  it  is  sometimes  half  a  mile  in  length ;  and  scarcely  could  have  been  much 
smaller  among  the  ancients,  since  it  is  spoken  of  as  nearly  taking  in  the  compass 
of  an  entire  bay  (vasta  sagena,  Manilius).  It  is  leaded  below,  that  it  may  sweep 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  supported  with  corks  above,  and  having  been  carried 
out  so  as  to  inclose  a  large  space  of  sea.  the  ends  are  then  brought  together,  and 
it  is  drawn  up  upon  the  beach  with  all  that  it  contains.  Cicero  calls  Verres,  with 
a  play  upon  his  name,  everriculum  in  provincia.  in  that  he  swept  all  before  him  • 
and  in  the  Greek  Fathers  we  have  Stava.Tov  aayitm).  KaraKXva-fiov  aayrivTi  (see  Sui- 
cer's  Tkes.,  s.  v.);  in  each  case  with  allusion  to  the  all-embracing  nature  of  this 
net,  which  allowed  no  escape.  See  Hab.  i.  15-17,  LXX.,  where  the  mighty  reach 
of  the  Chaldajan  conquests  is  set  forth  under  this  image,  and  by  this  word.  In 
this  view  of  it,  as  an  airepavrov  SIktvou  "Attjj.  how  grand  is  the  comparison  iu  Ho- 
mer {Odyss.,  22.  384)  of  the  slaughtered  suitors,  whom  Ulysses  saw, — 

koTKov  h  alyta\hv  ttoAitjj  eKTOff^e  ba\Affffr\s 
SiKTvtfi  i^epvaav  iro\vwTru.  o'l  Se  t6  travTes, 
Kvfiab'  a\hi  TTobeovTes.  eVJ  ^ujid^oKn  (ce'xyj^a*. 

There  are  curious  notices  in  Herodotus  (iii.  149 :  vi.  31)  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Persians  swept  away  the  conquered  pofyulation  from  some  of  the  Greek  islands; 
a  chain  of  men,  holding  hand  in  hand  and  stretching  across  the  whole  island,  ad- 
vanced over  its  whole  length— thus  taking,  as  it  were,  the  entire  population  in  a 
draw  net :  and  to  this  process  the  teclinical  name  a-uynyevetv  was  applied.  Cf. 
Plato's  Mencxenus  (p.  42.  Stallbaum's  ed.)  where  the  process  is  described ;  De 
Legg..  1.  3  p.  698 ;  and  Plutarch,  De  Sohrl.  Animal.,  c.  26.  There  is  a  good 
account  of  the  (Tayi]vr\  in  the  Did.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Anff.,  s.  v.  Rete,  p.  823. 

t  Beza,  indeed,  translates  iK  irayrhs  yivovs,  ex  omni  rcruvi  genere,  as  mud, 


118  THE  DRAW  NET. 

But  as  all  do  not  use  the  advantages  wliicli  the  communion  of  the 
Church  has  aflForded  them,  an  ultimate  separation  is  necessary ;  and  this 
is  next  described ;  the  net,  "  tvlten  it  ivas  ftdl^  they  drew  to  sJwre,  and 
sat  dawn  and  gatluered  the  good  into  vessels,  but  cast  the  bad  away?'' 
When  the  number  of  God's  elect  is  accomplished,  then  the  separation  of 
the  precious  from  the  vile  shall  follow,  of  the  just  from  sinners.  It  is 
most  likely  that  from  some  image  like  that  which  our  parable  supplies, 
■^the  leaving  and  taking  of  Matt.  xxiv.  41,  42,  is  to  be  explained, — "the 
one  shall  be  taken,  and  the  other  left."  Probably  there  as  here  the 
taking  is  for  blessedness,  the  selecting  of  the  precious ;  the  leaving  for 
destruction,  the  rejecting  of  the  vile  ;  though  the  terms  have  sometimes 
been  understood  in  exactly  the  opposite  sense.  Yet  hardly  with  justice ; 
for  what  is  the  "  left "  but  the  refused,  and  the  refused  but  the  refuse  ?* 
Whether  these  "^acr't    are  dead  putrid   fish,  such   as  sometimes   are 

shells,  sea-weed,  and  whatever  else  of  worthless  would  be  gathered  together  within 
the  folds  of  a  net;  these  things  would' then  be  understood  by  the  a-airpd,  which  are 
described  in  the  next  verse  as  cast  away  ;  and  so  it  is  in  the  Geneva  version,  "  of 
all  kinds  of  things."  But  the  plain  sense  of  the  parable  would  seem  to  determine 
that  it  is  fish  of  all  kinds  as  the  Vulgate  (ex  omni  genere  piscimn),  and  not  things 
of  all  kinds,  which  are  spoken  of;  in  the  words  of  H.  de  Sto  Victore  {Annott.  in 
Matth.)  :  Congregat  ex  omnibus  qui  minoribus  vel  majoribus  peccatis  sunt  h  Deo 
divisi,  et  per  multas  iniquitates  dispersi.  Another  name  of  the  net,  Tranaypov,  is 
exactly  derived  from  this  collecting  of  all  sorts  of  prey  within  its  folds, 

*  The  nature  of  this  separation — that  it  will  be  with  entire  consideration — no 
hasty  work  confusedly  huddled  over — may  be  indicated  in  the  sitting  down  of  the 
fishers  for  the  task  of  sorting  the  good  from  the  bad.  Thus  Bengel,  who  to  this 
KoSiiffavres  appends,  Studiose  ;  cf  Luke  xiv.  28,  31 ;  xvi.  6.  At  the  same  time  it 
completes  the  natural  picture  : 

in  illo 
Cespite  consedi,  dum  lina  madentia  sicco, 
Utque  recenserein  captivos  ordine  pisces.  Ovid. 

t  Soirpa,  scil.  Ix^vSia.  Grotius  :  Sunt  nugamenta  et  quisquilise  piscium,  quod 
genus  ut  servatu  indignum,  videmus  k  piscatoribus  abjici :  {&^pu>Ta  koX  &rtna,  Lu- 
cian ;  pisces  frivolos,  Apuleius.)  Yet  Vitringa,  in  an  instructive  note  {Erkldr.  d. 
Parab.,  p.  344,  seq.),  refers  to  Athenseus  as  using  aa-rpol  Ix^ves  in  opposition  to 
irp6(T<paToi.  As  the  latter  are  the  fresh,  the  first  must  signify  stale,  or  here  yet 
more  strongly,  putrid  {aairphs,  b  treo-rjiris.  Efym.  Mag.),  and  he  denies  that  we 
should  depart  from  this,  the  primary  signification  of  the  word,  to  take  up  with  the 
secondary.  But  on  the  other  hand,  to  find  dead  fish  in  a  net,  though  it  wiU  some- 
times happen,  must  be  of  rare  occurrence,  and  of  the  list  of  fishes,  which,  for 
instance,  Ovid  gives  in  his  fragment  of  the  Halieuticon,  how  many,  though  per- 
fectly fresh,  would  be  flung  aside  as  not  edible,  as  worthless  or  noxious,  the  im- 
munda  chromis,  merito  vilissima  salpa  .  .  .  Et  nigrum  niveo  portans  in  corpora 
virus  Loligo,  diu'ique  sues  :  or  again, — Et  capitis  duro  nociturus  scorpius  ictu, — 
all  which  might  well  have  been  gathered  in  this  o-ay^vri.  We  have  proof  that  at 
times  some  of  them  were,  from  a  jiroverb  in  the  Parccm.  Graci  (Oxf  1836,  p.  14), 
which  is  explained  as  containing  allusion  to  a  fisherman,  who  had  got  such  a  sea- 


THE  DRAW  NET.  119 

inclosed  within  a  net,  and  brought  to  land, — or  fish  worthless,  and  good 
for  nothing,  •'  that  which  was  sick  and  unwholesome  at  the  season,"  or 
fish  such  as  from  their  kind,  their  smalluess,  or  some  other  cause,  are 
unfit  to  be  either  sold  or  eaten,  and  are  therefore  flung  carelessly  aside, 
to  rot  upon  the  beach,  and  to  become  food  for  the  birds  of  prey  (Ezek. 
xxxii.  3,  4),  there  is  much  question ;  and  it  seems  not  easy,  as  it  is  not 
very  important,  to  decide. 

These  dead  or  worthless  fish  are  "  cast  away?''  An  entire  freedom 
from  all  evil  belongs  to  the  idea  of  the  Church,  and  this  idea  shall 
be  ultimately  realized.  Notwithstanding  all  that  mars  its  purity,  and 
defiles  its  brightness,  we  confess  our  belief  in  a  holy  Catholic  Church ; 
for  we  believe  that  whatever  we  see  cleaving  to  it,  which  is  not  holy,  is 
an  alien  disturbing  element,  which  shall  one  day  be  perfectly  separated 
from  it.  As  all  the  prophets  foreannounce  such  a  glorious  consummation, 
so  in  the  llevelation  it  is  contemplated  as  at  last  accomplished:  '••■Lcithout 
are  dogs"  (Rev.  xxii.  15),  where,  as  in  the  words  used  here,  and  in  so 
many  other  passages,  the  Church  is  contemplated  as  a  holy  inclosure,* 
into  which  nothing  unclean  has  a  right  to  enter ;  and  from  which,  if  it 
has  by  stealth  or  force  effected  an  entrance,  it  shall  sooner  or  later 
be  excluded — shut  out  for  ever,  even  as  those  ceremonially  unclean,  in 
witness  of  this,  were  obliged  to  remain  for  a  season  without  the  camp, 
which  was  the  figure  of  the  true  kingdom  of  God. — Our  Lord  offers  no 
explanation  of  the  '•  vessels  "  into  which  the  good  fish  are  gathered :  nor, 
indeed,  is  any  needed :  what  the  "  barn  "  was  at  ver.  30,  the  "  vessels  " 
are  here ;  the  "  many  mansions  "  (John  xiv.  2),  which  the  Lord  went  to 
prepare  for  his  people,  the  "  everlasting  habitations  "  (Luke  xvi.  9),  into 

scorpion  in  liis  net,  by  which  he  was  stung,  while  carelessly  handling  its  contents. 
Moreover,  with  Jewish  fishermen  this  rejection  of  part  of  the  contents  would  of 
necessity  have  taken  place,  not  because  some  of  the  fish  were  dead,  but  because 
they  were  unclean ;  "  all  that  have  not  fins  and  scales  shall  be  an  abomination  unto 
you."  (Lev.  xi.  9-12.)  These  probably  were  the  a-airpd.  Fritzche  combines  both 
meanings,  for  he  explains  it,  inutiles  et  putridos.  Our  translation  using  the  word 
"  bad"  has  not  determined  absolutely  for  one  sense  or  the  other.  See  Suicer's 
Thes.,  s.  V. 

*  From  this  image  is  to  be  explained  the  frequent  use  of  the  terms  e^ta,  and  (as 
here)  iK^dWtiv  €^t».  The  Church  is  regarded  as  complete  in  itself  with  the  line 
of  its  separation  from  the  sinful  KSff/xos  distinctly  drawn.  All  non-christians  then 
are  those  "  that  arc  without"  (ol  e^w,  Mark  iv.  11 ;  Col.  iv.  5)  ;  Christ  will  in  no 
wise  cast  out  {oh  yAi  ^k^oKu  ef«),  that  is,  expel  from  this  holy  inclo.sure,  this 
city  of  refuge,  those  that  come  to  him.  (.John  vi.  37.)  The  prince  of  this  world 
shall  be  cast  md  (John  xii.  31),  driven  fortli  from  God's  redeemed  creation.  lie 
tliat  abidfth  not  in  Christ,  is  cast  forth,  or  cast  out,  as  a  brancli  (John  xv.  G),— 
the  image  continuing  the  same  ;  as  the  dead  vine  branches  are  flung  forth  from 
the  vineyard  and  a  riddance  made  of  them,  so  will  these  be  expelled  from  the 
kingdom  of  God. 


120  THE  DRAW  NET. 

which  he  promises  to  receive  them.*  the  •'  city  which  hath  foundations  " 
that  Abraham  looked  for.     (Heb.  xi.  10.) 

But  to  whom  is  the  task  of  separation  to  be  confided  ?  Here  I  can- 
not consent  to  Olshausen's  view,  which  is  also  Vitringa's,t  that  those  who 
cast  the  net,  and  those  who  discriminate  between  its  contents,  being,  in 
the  parable,  the  same ;  therefore,  since  the  first  are  evidently  the  apostles 
and  their  successors,  now  become,  according  to  the  Lord's  promise, 
"fishers  of  men"  (Matt.  iv.  19;  Luke  v.  10;  Ezek.  xlvii.  10;  Jer.  xvi, 
16)  ;|  so  the  last  must  be — not  the  angelic  ministers  of  God's  judgments, 
but  the  same  messengers  of  the  Covenant,  and  as  such,  angels,  to  whom, 
being  equipped  with  divine  power,  the  task  of  judging  and  sundering 
should  be  committed.  No  doubt  the  Church,  in  its  progressive  develop- 
ment, is  always  thus  judging  and  separating  (1  Cor.  v.  4,  5 ;  Jude  22, 
23) ;  putting  away  one  and  another  from  her  communion,  as  they  openly 
declare  themselves  unworthy  of  it.  But  she  does  not  count  that  she 
has  thus  cleansed  herself,  or  that  this  perfect  cleansing  can  be  effected 
by  any  power  which  now  she  wields.  There  must  be  a  judgment  and 
sundering  from  without,  and  of  this  the  final  separation,  every  where 
else  in  Scripture  we  find  the  angels  distinctly  named  as  the  executioners. 
(Matt.  xiii.  41  ;  xxiv.  31  ;  xxv.  31  ;  Rev.  xiv.  18,  19.)^  It  seems  then 
contrary  to  the  analogy  of  faith  to  interpret  the  present  passage  in  any 
other  manner. 

It  is  quite  true,  that  in  the  familiar  occurrence  which  supplies  the 
groundwork  of  the  parable,  the  same  who  carried  out  the  net  would  na- 
turally also  draw  it  to  shore, — as  it  would  naturally  be  they  who  would 

*  Augustine  {Serm.  368,  c.  3)  :  Yascula  sunt  sanctorum  sedes,  et  beatse  vitaB 
magna  secreta. 

t  Erklar.  d.  Parab.,  p.  351,  seq. 

:t:  This  last  reference  to  Jer.  xvi.  16,  will  only  hold  good,  supposing  we  connect 
this  verse  not  with  what  follows,  but  as  Jerome  does,  with  what  goes  before,  and 
so  make  it  not  a  threat,  but  a  promise  that  into  whatever  place  the  Lord's  people 
have  been  scattered,  from  thence  he  will  be  at  all  pains  to  recover  them.  In  that 
fine  Orphic  hymn  attributed  to  Clement  of  Alexandria  (p.  312,  Potter's  ed.),  Christ 
himself  is  addressed  as  the  chief  fisher  ;  and,  as  here,  the  world  is  the  great  sea 
of  wickedness,  out  of  which  the  saved,  the  holy  fish,  are  drawn. 

'hXiiu  jx^pSiTdiv  Ix^vs  ayvohs 

Toi)v  aw^oixivoov,  KVjiaros  ex^P"" 

ireXdyovs  KUKtas  y\vK€pij  ^aia,  SeXid^uiv. 

^  Moreover  in  each  of  the  other  parables  of  judgment,  there  is  a  marked  dis- 
tinction, which  it  is  little  likely  should  have  been  here  renounced,  between  the 
present  ministers  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  future  executors  of  doom — in  the  Tares 
between  the  servants  and  the  reapers,  in  the  Marri.age  of  the  King's  Son  (Matt. 
xxii.  3,  13)  between  the  servants  {SovXot)  and  attendants  {SiaKoyoi),  in  the  Pounds 
between  the  seiwants  and  those  that  stand  by  {oi  irapeo-T&JTes,  Luke  xix.  25). 


THE  DRAW  NET.  X21 

also  inspect  its  contents,  for  the  purpose  of  selecting  the  good  and  cast- 
ing the  worthless  away ;  but  it  is  pushing  this  circumstance,  which,  iu 
fact,  is  the  weak  side  of  the  comparison,  too  far,  to  require  that  the  same 
should  also  hold  good  in  the  spiritual  thing  signified.  In  the  nearly  allied 
parable  of  the  Tares,  there  was  no  improbability  in  supposing  those  who 
watched  the  growth  of  the  crop  to  be  different  from  those  who  finally 
gathered  it  in ;  and,  accordingly,  such  a  difference  is  marked :  those  are 
the  servants,  these  are  the  reapers.  The  diff'erence  could  not  be  marked 
in  the  same  way  here,  but  it  is  indicated,  though  lightly,  in  another  way. 
The  fisliers  are  not  once  mentioned  by  name ;  the  imperfection  of  the 
human  illustration  to  set  forth  the  divine  truth,  is  kept,  as  far  as  may  be, 
out  of  sight,  by  the  whole  circumstance  being  told,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
impersonally.  And  when  the  Lord  himself  interprets  the  parable,  he 
passes  over,  without  a  word,  the  beginning  of  it ;  thus  again  drawing 
away  attention  from  a  circumstance,  upon  which  to  dwell  might  need- 
lessly have  perplexed  his  hearers, — and  explains  only  the  latter  part, 
where  the  point  and  stress  of  it  lay  :  •'  So  shall  it  be  at  tlte  end  of  the 
world  :  t/ie  angels  shall  come  forth  and  sever  tlie  iviclced  front,  among  tJie 
just,  and  sluill  cast  tlicm  into  tlic  furnace  of  fire."*  Assuming  then  as 
we  may,  and  indeed  must,  the  angels  of  heaven  here  also  to  be  the  takers 
and  leavers,  we  may  find  an  emphasis  in  the  "  coming  forth  "  which  is 
attributed  to  them.  Ever  since  the  first  constitution  of  the  Church  they 
have  been  hidden — withdrawn  from  men's  sight  for  so  long.  But  then 
at  that  great  epoch  of  the  kingdom,  they  shall  again  '•'•come  forth"  from 
before  the  throne  and  presence  of  God,  and  walk  up  and  down  among 
men,  the  visible  ministers  of  his  judgments. 

Though  the  parable,  as  was  observed  at  the  beginning,  at  first  sight 
appears  so  similar  to  that  of  the  Tares,  as  merely  to  teach  over  again 
the  same  truth,  yet  the  moral  of  it,  in  fact,  is  very  different.  It  is  need- 
less to  re-state  the  purpose  of  that ;  but  the  moral  of  this  is  clearly,  that 
we  be  not  content  with  being  inclosed  within  the  Gospel-net, — that 
"  they  are  not  all  Israel,  who  are  of  Israel," — but  that,  in  the  "  great 
house  "  of  the  Church, "  there  are  not  only  vessels  of  gold  and  silver, 
but  of  wood  and  earth,  and  some  to  honor,  and  some  to  dishonor ;" 
that  each  of  us  therefore  seek  to  be  "a  vessel  unto  honor,  sanctified  and 
meet  for  tlie  master's  use"  (2  Tim.  ii.  20,  21) ;  since  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  confusions  of  the  visible  Church,  '•  the  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are 
his,"  and  will  one  day  bring  the  confusion  to  an  end,  separating,  and  for 
ever,  the  precious  from  the  vile — the  true  kernel  of  humanity  from  the 
husk  in  which  for  a  while  it  was  enveloped. 

*  Chrysostom  well  calls  the  parable  with  reference  to  this  verse,  (pa^tpav  irapa- 
$o\-fiu.  and  Gregory  the  Great  says  of  the  same  (^Hom.  11,  in  Evang.),  Timendum 
est  potids  qu&m  exponendum. 


122  THE  DRAW  NET. 

Having  arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  these  seven  parahles,  the  present 
will  be  a  fit  opportunity  for  saying  a  few  words  concerning  their  mutual 
relation  to  one  another,  and  how  far  they  constitute  a  complete  whole. 
The  mystical  number  seven  has  offered  to  many  interpreters  a  tempta- 
tion too  strong  to  be  resisted  for  the  seeking  in  them  some  hidden  mys- 
tery ;  and  when  the  seven  petitions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  names 
of  the  seven  original  deacons  (Acts  vi.  5),  have  been  turned  into  pro- 
phecy of  seven  successive  states  of  the  Church,  not  to  speak  of  the  seven 
Apocalyptic  Epistles  (Rev.  ii.  iii.),  it  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that 
these  seven  parables  should  have  escaped  being  made  prophetic  of  the 
same. 

They  have  been,  in  fact,  so  often  thus  dealt  with  as  prophecy,  that  a 
late  ingenious  writer*  needed  not  to  have  apologized  for  making  an  at- 
tempt of  the  kind,  as  though  it  were  something  altogether  novel  and  un- 
heard of  Having  offered  his  apologies,  he  proceeds  :  "  It  is  my  persua- 
sion that  the  parables  in  this  chapter  are  not  to  be  considered  disjoint- 
edly,  but  to  be  taken  together  as  a  connected  series,  indicating,  progress- 
ively, the  several  stages  of  advancement  through  which  the  mystical 
kingdom  of  Christ,  upon  earth,  was  ♦^^o  proceed,  from  its  commencement 
to  its  consummation.  ...  It  will  be  understood,  then,  that  each  parable 
has  a  period  peculiarly  its  own,  in  which  the  state  of  things,  so  signified, 
predominates  ;  but  when  another  state  of  things  commences,  the  former 
does  not  cease.  It  only  becomes  less  predominant ;  operative  as  really 
as  ever,  but  in  a  way  subsidiary  to  that  which  now  takes  the  lead.  It 
will  follow  that  each  succeeding  stage  implies  a  virtual  combination  of  all 
that  has  gone  before,  and,  of  course,  the  grand  concluding  scene  will  con- 
tain the  sublimated  spirit  and  extracted  essence  of  the  whole."  Bengel 
announces  the  same  theory,!  and  applies  it  thus :  the  first  parable,  he 
affirms,  refers  to  the  times  of  Christ  and  his  immediate  apostles,  when 
was  the  original  sowing  of  the  word  of  eternal  life.  The  second,  that  of 
the  Tares,  to  the  age  immediately  following,  when  watchfulness  against 
false  doctrine  began  to  diminish,  and  heresies  to  abound.  The  third, 
that  of  the  Mustard  Seed,  to  the  time  of  Constantino,  when  the  Church, 
instead  of  even  seeming  to  need  support,  evidently  gave  it,  and  the  great 
ones  of  the  earth  came  under  its  shadow  and  protection.     The  fourth, 

*  Alex.  Knox,  in  his  Remains,  v.  1,  p.  408. 

f  Prajter  communes  et  perpetuus  regni  caelorum  sive  Ecclesife  rationes,  conve- 
niunt  h<e  septem  parabolje,  reconditissimum  habentes  scnsum,  ctiam  in  periodos  et 
aetatcs  Ecclesiae  diversas,  ita  quideni  ut  alia  po.st  aliam  in  complemento  incipiat, 
non  tamen  prior  quaglibet  ante  initium  sequentis  exeat.  An  essay  which  I  know 
only  by  name,  Reuss  :  Meletema  de  sensu  septem  Parab.,  Matth.  xiii.  prophetico, 
Haun.  1733,  must  no  doubt  be  an  exposition  of  the  same  theory.  See  against  it 
Marckius,  Syll.  Dissert.  Exerc.  4. 


THE  DRAW  NET.  123 

that  of  the  Leaven,  refers  to  the  propagation  of  true  religion  through 
the  whole  world.  The  fifth,  of  the  Hid  Treasure,  to  the  more  hidden 
state  of  the  Church,  signified  in  the  Apocalypse  (xii.  6)  by  the  woman 
flying  into  the  wilderness.  The  sixth,  that  of  the  Pearl,  to  the  glorious 
time  when  the  kingdom  shall  be  esteemed  above  all  things,  Satan  being 
bound.  The  seventh,  of  the  Draw  Net,  details  the  ultimate  confusion, 
separation,  and  judgment.  Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  com- 
pare the  two  schemes  with  one  another,  will  be  induced  to  suspect  how 
merely  capricious  they  both  must  be,  when  he  notes  the  considerable 
differences  that  exist  between  them.  They  have  two  out  of  the  seven, 
the  fifth,  and  the  sixth,  altogether  different. 

Yet  though  not  thus  historico-prophetical,  these  parables  were  in  a 
certain  sense  prophetical,  for  they  foretold  things  that  were  to  come  to 
pass ;  only  it  was  not  the  Lord's  main  purpose  in  uttering  them  to 
acquaint  his  servants  with  the  future  destinies  of  his  Church,  but  rather 
to  give  tliem  practical  rules  and  warnings  for  their  conduct.  So,  too, 
doubtless  the  seven  have  a  certain  unity,  succeeding  one  another  in  natu- 
ral order,  and  having  a  completeness  in  themselves : — thus  in  the  Sower 
are  set  forth  the  causes  of  the  failures  and  success  which  the  word  of 
the  Gospel  meets,  when  it  is  preached  in  the  world.  In  the  Tares,  the 
obstacles  to  the  internal  development  of  Christ's  kingdom,  even  after  a 
Church  has  been  hedged  in  and  fenced  round  from  the  world,  are  declar- 
ed, and  are  traced  up  to  their  true  author,  with  a  warning  against  the 
manner  in  which  men  might  be  tempted  to  remove  those  obstacles.  The 
Mustard  Seed  and  the  Leaven  declare  the  victorious  might, — the  first, 
the  outward,  and  the  second,  the  inward  might  of  that  kingdom ;  and 
therefore  implicitly  prophesy  of  its  development  in  spite  of  all  these  ob- 
stacles, and  its  triumph  over  them.  As  these  two  are  objective  and  gen- 
eral, so  the  two  which  follow  are  subjective  and  individual,  declaring  the 
relation  of  the  kingdom  to  every  man,  its  supreme  worth,  and  how  those 
who  have  discovered  that  worth  will  be  willing  to  renounce  all  things  for 
its  sake ;  they  have  besides  mutual  relations  already  touched  on.  and 
complete  one  another.  This  last  is  the  declaration,  how  that  entire  sep- 
aration from  evil,  which  in  the  second  we  saw  that  men  might  be  tempt- 
ed to  anticipate  by  unpermitted  means,  shall  yet  come  to  pass, — that 
separation  which  it  is  righteous  to  long  for  in  God's  own  time,  but 
wrong  by  self-willed  efforts  prematurely  to  anticipate ; — and  looking 
forward  to  which,  each  is  to  strive  that  he  may  so  use  the  present  priv- 
ileges and  means  of  grace,  which  the  communion  of  the  Clmrch  affords 
him,  that  he  may  be  found  among  those  that  shall  be  the  Lord's  when 
he  shall  put  away  all  the  ungodly  like  dross,  when  he  shall  set  a  differ- 
ence between  them  who  serve  him,  and  them  who  serve  him  not. 


VIII. 
THE   UNMERCIFUL   SERVANT. 

Matthew  xviii.  23 — 35. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  discourse  going  before,  to  lead  immediately  to 
the  question  of  Peter's,  in  answer  to  which  this  parable  was  spoken ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  the  words,  "  Then  came  Peter,"  seem  to  mark 
that  the  connection  is  unbroken.  It  may  perhaps  be  thus  traced  :  Peter 
must  have  felt  in  his  Lord's  injunctions  concerning  the  manner  of  deal- 
ing with  an  offending  brother  (ver.  15-17),  that  the  forgiveness  of  his 
fault  was  necessarily  implied  as  having  already  taken  place ;  since,  till 
we  had  forgiven,  we  could  not  be  in  the  condition  to  deal  with  him  thus ; 
for  this  dealing,  even  to  the  exclusion  of  him  from  Church-fellowship, 
is  entirely  a  dealing  in  love  (2  Thess.  iii.  14,  15),  and  with  a  view  to  his 
recovery.  (See  Sirac  xix.  13-17.)  Nor  does  it  mean,  as  we  might  be 
too  much  inclined  to  understand  it,  that  after  the  failure  of  these  re- 
peated attempts  to  win  him  to  a  better  mind,  we  should  even  then  be 
justified  in  feeling  strangeness  towards  him  in  our  hearts  ;*  for  com- 
pare the  whole  course  of  St.  Paul's  injunctions  concerning  the  oiFender 
in  the  Corinthian  church.  Were  that  too  the  meaning,  the  exercise  of 
the  law  of  love  would  then  be  limited  to  three  times  (see  ver.  15-17) ; 
and  that  in  opposition  to  what  immediately  follows,  where  it  is  extended 
to  seventy  times   seven. f     Chrysostom  observes,  that  when  Peter  in- 

*  As  neither,  on  the  other  hand,  does  the  command  to  forgive  till  seventy  times 
seven  exclude  a  dealing,  if  need  be,  of  severity,  provided  ahvays  it  be  a  dealing  in 
love.  Thus  Augustine  {Serm.  83,  c.  7) :  Si  per  caritatem  imponitur  disciplina,  de 
corde  lenitas  non  recodat.  Quid  enim  tam  pium  qu^m  medicus  ferens  ferramen- 
tum  %  Plorat  secandus,  et  secatur  :  plorat  urendus,  et  uritur.  Non  est  ilia  crude- 
litas,  ab.sit  ut  s£evitia  medici  dicatur.  Saevit  in  vulnus,  ut  homo  sanetur,  quia  si 
vulnus  palpotur,  homo  perditur.     Cf  Servi.  211. 

t  Our  Lord's  "seventy  times  seven"  of  forgiveness  makes  a  wonderful  contrast, 
which  has  not  escaped  the  notice  of  St.  Jerome  (v.  2,  p.  565,  edit.  Bened.)  to  La- 
mech's,  the  antediluvian  Antichrist's,  seventy  and  seven-fold  of  revenge.  (Gen.  iv. 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  125 

stanced  seven,  as  the  number  of  times  that  an  oflfending  brother  should 
be  forgiven,  he  accounted  certainly  that  he  was  doing  some  great  thing, 
— that  his  charity  was  taking  a  large  stretch,  these  seven  being  four 
times  more  than  the  Jewish  masters  enjoined.*  He  increased  the  num- 
ber of  times  with  the  feeling,  no  doubt,  that  the  spirit  of  tlie  new  law 
of  love  which  Christ  had  brought  into  the  world, — a  law  larger,  freer, 
more  long-suffering,  than  the  old, — required  this.f  There  was  then  in 
Peter's  mind  a  consciousness  of  this  new  law  of  love, — though  an  ob- 
scure one,  since  he  supposed  it  possible  that  love  could  ever  be  overcome 
by  hate,  good  by  evil.  But  there  was,  at  the  same  time,  a  fundamental 
error  in  the  question  itself,  for  in  proposing  a  limit  beyond  which  for- 
giveness should  not  extend,  there  was  evidently  implied  the  notion,  that 
a  man  in  forgiving,  gave  up  a  right  which  he  might,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, exercise.  The  purpose  of  our  Lord's  answer, — in  other 
words,  of  the  parable, — is  to  make  clear  that  when  God  calls  on  a  mem- 
ber of  his  kingdom  to  forgive,  he  does  not  call  on  him  to  renounce  a 
right,  but  that  he  has  now  no  right  to  exercise  in  the  matter  :  asking 
for  and  accepting  forgiveness,  he  has  implicitly  pledged  himself  to  show 
it ;  and  it  is  difl&cult  to  imagine  how  any  amount  of  didactic  instruction 
could  have  conveyed  this  truth  with  at  all  the  force  and  conviction  of  the 
following  parable. 

'•  TJierefore"  to  the  end  that  you  may  understand  what  I  say  the 
better,  ••  is  live  kingdom  of  heaven  likened  unto  a  certain  king,  lohich 
woufd  take  account  of  Ibis  servants V  This  is  the  first  of  the  parables  in 
whitli  God  appears  in  his  character  of  King.  We  are  the  servants 
witli  wlioui   he   takes  account.     Yet  this  is  not,  as  is  plain,  the  final 

24.)  'EffSo/j.TjKoi'TdKis  eirra  is  not,  as  Origen  and  some  others  unaerstand  it, 
70-|-7=77  ;  for  tliat  would  be  rather  efiSo/xriKouTa  Ittto/cis,  but  70x7=490. 

*  They  grounded  the  duty  of  forgiving  three  times  and  not  more,  on  Amos  i.  3 : 
ri.  6 ;  also  on  Job  xxxiii.  29.  30 ;  at  this  last  passage  see  the  marginal  translation. 
Lightkoot'.s  /////-.  Ui'f).  in  loc. 

t  While  this  is  true,  there  were  yet  deeper  motives  for  his  selection  of  the  num- 
ber .seven.  It  is  the  number  in  the  divine  law  with  which  the  idea  of  remission 
(4<^e(T«s)  was  ever  linked.  The  seven  times  seventh  year  was  the  year  of  jubilee 
(?Toy  Tijs  cLipecrfus)  Lev.  xxv.  28;  of.  iv.  6, 17  ;  xvi.  14.  15.  It  is  true  that  we  find 
it  as  the  number  of  puni.shraent  or  retribution  for  evil  also;  (Gen.  iv.  15;  Lev. 
xxvi.  18  21  24.  28;  Deut.  xxviii.  25;  Ps.  Ixxix.  12;  Prov.  vi.  31 ;  Dan.  iv.  16; 
Rev.  XV.  1 ;)  yet  this  should  not  disturb  or  perplex,  but  rather  confirm  us  in  this 
view  since  there  lies  ever  in  puni.shraent  the  idea  of  restoration  of  disturbed 
relations  and  so  of  forgiveness.  (Ezek.  xvi.  42.)  It  is  the  storm  which  violently 
reston's  tlie  disturbed  equilibrium  of  the  moral  atmosphere.  Gregory  of  Nyssa 
then  has  a  true  insight  into  the  reason  why  Peter  should  have  named  seven  times, 
when  he  observes  iOpp.  v.  1,  p.  159):  T\apiTr)pr\(T(v  6  neVpos,  8ti  Kaviiv  trapaSScreCiis 
ipXO^os  <Vti.    rhv  «/35o/ita5a    ff^paatv    ex*"'    '''"'OJ   acpfffeois   afxaprri^aTtev,    avairavtrfus 


126  THE  UNMERCIFT7L  SERVANT. 

reckoning,  not  identical  with  that  of  Matt.  xxy.  19;  2  Cor.  v.  10;  but 
rather  such  a  reckoning  as  that  of  Luke  xvi.  2.  To  this  he  brings  us 
by  tlie  preaching  of  the  law, — by  the  setting  of  our  sins  before  our  face, 
— by  awakening  and  alarming  our  conscience  that  was  asleep  before, — 
by  bringing  us  into  adversities, — by  casting  us  into  perils  of  death,  so 
that  we  seem  to  see  it  near  before  us  (2  Kin.  xx.  4) ;  he  takes  account 
with  us  when  he  makes  us  feel  that  we  could  not  answer  him  one  thing 
in  a  thousand, — that  our  trespasses  are  more  than  the  hairs  of  our  heads ; 
when  through  one  means  or  another  he  brings  our  careless  carnal  secu- 
rity to  an  utter  end.  (Ps.  1.  21.)  Thus  David  was  summoned  before 
God  by  the  word  of  Nathan  the  prophet  (2  Sam.  xii.) ;  thus  the  Nine- 
vites  by  the  preaching  of  Jonah,  thus  the  Jews  by  John  the  Baptist. 

"  And  wlien  lie  laid  begun  to  reckon,  one  was  brought  unto  him  ivhich 
meed  him  ten  tJiousmul  talents ,-"  he  had  not  to  go  far,  before  he  lighted 
on  this  one;  he  had  only  '■^ begun  to  reckon.''^  This  perhaps  was  the 
first  into  whose  accounts  he  looked ;  there  may  have  been  others  with 
yet  larger  debts  behind.  This  one  "  was  brought  unto  him,^^  he  never 
would  have  come  of  himself;  far  more  likely  he  would  have  made  that 
ten  into  twenty  thousand  ;  for  the  secure  sinner  goes  on  treasuring  up 
(Rom.  ii.  5)  an  ever  mightier  sum,  to  be  one  day  required  of  him. 
The  sum  here  is  immense,  whatever  talents  we  suppose  these  to  have 
been,  though  it  would  differ  very  much  in  amount,  according  to  the 
talent  which  we  assumed ;  if,  indeed,  the  Hebrew,  it  would  then  be  a 
sum  perfectly  enormous  ;*  yet  only  therefore  the  fitter  to  express  the 
greatness  of  every  man's  transgression  in  thought,  word,  and  deed, 
against  his  God. 

In  the  case  before  us,  the  immensity  of  the  sum  may  be  best  ex- 
plained by  supposing  the  defaulter  to  have  been  one  of  the  chief  servants 
of  the  king,  a  farmer  or  administrator  of  the  royal  revenues  ;t  or  seeing 
that  in  the  despotisms  of  the  East,  every  individual,  from  the  highest  to 

*  How  great  a  sum  it  was,  we  can  most  vividly  realize  to  ourselves  by  compar- 
ing it  with  other  sums  of  which  mention  is  made  in  Scripture.  In  the  construction 
of  the  tahcrnacle,  twenty-nine  talents  of  gold  were  used;  (Exod.  xxxviii.  2-4;) 
David  prepared  for  the  temple  three  thousand  talents  of  gold,  and  the  princes  five 
thousand ;  (1  Chron.  xxix.  4-7  ;)  the  queen  of  Sheba  presented  to  Solomon,  as  a 
royal  gift,  one  hundred  and  twenty  talents;  (1  Kin.  x.  10;)  the  king  of  Assyria 
laid  upon  Hezckiah  thirty  talents  of  gold ;  (2  Kin.  xviii.  14;)  and  in  the  extreme 
impoverishment  to  which  the  land  was  brought  at  the  last,  one  talent  of  gold  was 
laid  upon  it,  after  the  death  of  Josiah,  by  the  king  of  Egypt.  (2  Chron.  xxxvi.  3.) 

t  In  the  Jewish  parable  (Schoettgen's  Hot.  Hcb.  v.  1,  p.  155),  which  bears  re- 
semblance to  that  before  us,  in  so  far  as  the  sins  of  men  are  there  represented  un- 
der the  image  of  enormous  debt,  which  it  is  impossible  to  pay— it  is  the  tribute 
due  from  an  entire  city,  which  is  owing  to  the  king,  and  which,  at  the  entreaty  of 
the  inhabitants,  he  remits. 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  127 

the  lowest,  stands  in  an  absolutely  servile  relation  to  the  monarch,  is  in 
fact  his  servant  or  slave,  there  is  nothing  in  that  name  to  hinder  us  from 
supposing  him  to  be  one,  to  whom  some  chief  post  of  honor  and  dignity 
in  the  kingdom  had  been  committed, — a  satrap  who  should  have  remit- 
ted the  revenues  of  his  province  to  the  royal  treasury.*  This  is  far 
more  probable  than  that  he  is  such  an  one  as  those  servants  in  the 
parable  of  the  Talents,  to  whom  moneys  were  committed  that  they  might 
trade  with  them :  the  greatness  of  the  debt  renders  such  a  supposition 
very  unlikely.  Nor  would  the  sale  of  the  defaulter,  with  the  confiscation 
of  all  his  goods,  have  gone  far  to  pay  such  a  debt,  unless  he  had  been 
one  living  in  great  splendor  and  pomp  ;  though,  it  is  true,  the  words  of 
the  original  do  not  imply  that  the  king  expected  the  debt  to  be  dis- 
charged with  the  proceeds  of  the  sale,  but  that  whatever  those  proceeds 
were,  they  were  to  be  rendered  into  his  treasury. 

The  sale  of  the  debtor's  wife  and  children, — for  the  king  commanded 
them  to  be  sold  with  him, — rested  upon  the  theory  that  they  were  a  part 
of  his  property.  Thus,  according  to  Roman  law,  the  children  being  part 
of  the  property  of  the  father,  they  were  sold  into  slavery  with  him. 
That  it  was  allowed  under  the  Mosaic  law  to  sell  an  insolvent  debtor,  is 
implicitly  stated,  Lev.  xxv.  39;  and  ver.  41,  makes  it  probable  that  his 
family  also  came  into  bondage  with  him ;  and  we  find  allusion  to  the 
same  custom  in  other  places.  (2  Kin.  iv.  1  ;  Neh.  v.  6 ;  Isai.  1.  1  ;  Iviii. 
6;  Jer.  xxxiv.  8-11;  Amos  ii.  6;  viii.  6.)  Michaelis*  states  that  the 
later  Jewish  doctors  declared  against  it,  except  in  cases  where  a  thief 
should  be  sold  to  make  good  the  damage  which  he  had  done,  and  is  in- 
clined to  think  that  there  was  no  such  practice  among  the  Jews  in  our 
Lord's  time,  but  that  this  dealing  with  the  servant  is  borrowed  from  the 
practice  of  neighboring  countries.  There  is  much  to  make  this  proba- 
ble :  it  is  certain  that  the  imprisoning  of  a  debtor,  which  also  we  twice 
meet  with  in  this  parable  (ver.  30,  34),  formed  no  part  of  the  Jewish 
law  ;  indeed,  where  the  creditor  possessed  the  power  of  selling  him  into 

♦  According  to  Plutarch  {Reg.  et  Imp.  Apothegm.'),  it  was  exactly  this  sum  of 
ten  thousand  talents  with  which  Darius  sought  to  buy  off  Alexander,  that  he 
should  not  prosecute  his  conquests  in  Asia  ; — as  also  the  payment  of  tlie  same  sura 
was  imposed  by  the  Romans,  on  Antiochus  the  Great,  after  his  defeat  by  them  :  and 
when  Alexander,  at  Susa,  paid  the  debts  of  the  whole  Macedonian  army,  they 
amounted  to  only  twice  this  sum,  though  every  motive  was  at  work  to  enhance  the 
amount.  (See  Droysen's  Gesch.  Alexanders,  p.  500.)  Von  Bohlen  {Das.  Alt.  Iiid.., 
V.  2,  p.  119)  gives  some  curious  and  almost  incredible  notices  of  tlie  quantities  of 
gold  in  the  East. — I  do  not  know  whether  the  immensity  of  tlie  sum  may  partly 
have  moved  Origcn  to  his  strange  supposition,  that  it  can  only  be  tlie  man  of  sin 
(2  Thcs.  ii.)  that  is  here  indicated,  or  stranger  still,  the  Devil !  Comi)are  Thilo's 
Cod.  Apocryphus,  vol.  1,  p.  887,  and  Neander's  Kirch.  Gesch.,  v.  5,  j).  1122. 

t  Mos.  Recht.,  V.  3,  p.  68-60.  • 


128  THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT. 

bondage,  it  would  have  been  totally  superfluous.  "  TJw  tormentors^^ 
also  (ver.  34),  tliose  who  make  inquisition  by  torture,  have  a  foreign  ap- 
pearance, and  would  incline  us  to  look  for  the  locality  of  the  parable  else- 
where than  in  Judea. — For  the  spiritual  significance,  God  may  be  said 
to  sell  those,  whom  he  altogether  alienates  from  himself,  rejects,  and  de- 
livers for  ever  into  the  power  of  another.  By  the  selling  here  may  be 
indicated  such  '•  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
and  the  glory  of  his  power."  Compare  Ps.  xliv.  12,  "  Thou  sellest  thy 
people  for  nought." 

The  servant,  hearing  the  dreadful  doom  pronounced  against  him  by 
his  lord,  betakes  himself  to  supplication,  the  one  resource  that  remains 
to  him  ;  he  '■'fell  down  and  warshiiyped  him."  The  formal  act  of  wor- 
ship, or  adoration,  consisted  in  prostration  on  the  ground,  and  kissing  of 
the  feet  and  knees ;  and  here  Origen  bids  us  to  note  the  nice  observance 
of  proprieties  in  the  details  of  the  parable.  This  servant  ^'  ivor shipped" 
the  king,  for  that  honor  was  paid  to  royal  personages ;  but  it  is  not  said 
that  the  other  servant  worshipped,  he  only  " besought"  his  fellow-ser- 
vant. His  words,  "  Lord.,  havepatience  ivith  »ze,  and  I ivill pay  thee  all" 
are  characteristic  of  the  extreme  fear  and  anguish  of  the  moment,  which 
made  him  ready  to  promise  impossible  things,  even  mountains  of  gold, 
if  only  he  might  be  delivered  from  the  present  danger.  When  words 
of  a  like  kind  find  utterance  from  the  lips  of  the  sinner,  now  first  con- 
vinced of  his  sin,  they  show  that  he  has  not  yet  attained  to  a  full  insight 
into  his  relations  with  his  God — that  he  has  yet  much  to  learn ;  as  namely 
this — that  no  future  obedience  can  make  up  for  past  disobedience ;  since 
that  future  God  claims  as  his  right,  as  only  his  due :  it  could  not  then, 
even  were  it  perfect,  which  it  will  prove  far  from  being,  make  compensa- 
tion for  the  past.  We  may  hear  then  in  the  words,  the  voice  of  self- 
righteousness,  imagining  that,  if  only  time  were  allowed,  it  could  make 
good  all  the  shortcomings  of  the  past.  The  words  are  exceedingly  im- 
portant, as  very  much  explaining  to  us  the  later  conduct  of  this  man.  It 
is  clear  that  he  had  never  come  to  a  true  recognition  of  the  immensity  of 
his  debt.  Little,  in  the  subjective  measure  of  his  own  estimate,  was 
forgiven  him,  and  therefore  he  loved  little,  or  not  at  all.  It  is  true  that 
by  his  demeanor  and  his  cry  he  did  recognize  his  indebtedness,  else 
would  there  have  been  no  setting  of  him  free :  and  he  might  have  gone 
on,  and  had  he  been  true  to  his  own  mercies,  he  would  have  gone  on,  to 
an  ever  fuller  recognition  of  the  grace  shown  him :  but  as  it  was,  in  a 
little  while  he  lost  sight  of  it  altogether. 

However,  at  the  earnestness  of  his  present  prayer  "  tJie  lord  of  tliaZ 
servant  was  moved  tvith  compassion,  and  loosed  him.,  and  forgave  him, 
the  debt."     The  severity  of  God  only  endures  till  the  sinner  is  brought 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  129 

to  recognize  his  guilt,  it  is  indeed,  like  Joseph's  harshness  with  his  bre- 
thren, nothing  more  than  love  in  disguise ; — and  having  done  its  work, 
having  brought  him  to  the  acknowledgment  of  his  guilt  and  misci'y,  re- 
appears as  grace  again,  granting  him  more  than  even  he  had  dared  to 
ask  or  to  hope,  loosing  the  bands  of  his  sins  and  letting  him  go  free. 
His  lord  "forgave  Itim  tliedcbt"*  and  thus  this  very  reckoning  with  him, 
which  at  first  threatened  him  with  irremediable  ruin,  might  have  been 
the  chiefost  mercy  of  all ;  bringing  indeed  his  debt  to  a  head,  but  only 
so  bringing  it,  that  it  might  be  put  away.  So  is  it  evermore  with  men. 
There  cannot  be  a  forgiving  in  the  dark.  God  will  forgive  ;  but  he  will 
have  the  sinner  to  know  what  and  how  mueli  he  is  forgiven  ;  lie  sum- 
mons him  with  that  "  Come  now  and  let  us  reason  together,"  before  the 
scarlet  is  made  white.  (Isai.  i.  18.)  The  sinner  sliall  have  the  sentence 
of  death  in  him  first,  for  only  s.o  will  the  words  of  life  and  pardon  have 
any  true  meaning  for  him. 

But  he  to  whom  this  mercy  was  shown  did  not  receive  it  aright 
(Wisd.  xii.  19) ;  too  soon  he  forgot  it,  and  showed  tl)at  ho  had  forgotten 
it  by  his  conduct  towards  liis  fellow-servant.  Forgoing  out  from  the  pre- 
sence of  his  lord,  he  found,  immediately  after,  as  would  seem,  and  when 
the  sense  of  his  lord's  goodness  should  have  been  yet  fresh  upon  him, 
"  one  of  Ids  fclloiv-servant.s  tcho  owed  him  a  hundred  jieiice.''''  How  strik- 
ing and  instructive  is  that  word  '•'•going  out" — slight  as  it  seems,  yet 
one  of  the  key-words  of  the  parable.  For  how  is  it  that  we  are  ever  ia 
danger  of  acting  as  this  servant '?  Because  we  "  go  out "  of  the  presence 
of  our  God ;  because  we  do  not  abide  there,  with  an  ever-lively  sense  of 
the  greatness  of  our  sin,  and  the  greatness  of  his  forgiveness.  By  the 
servant's  going  out  is  expressed  the  sinner's  forgetfulncss  of  the  greatness 
of  the  benefits  which  he  has  received  from  his  God.f  The  term  "fdloio- 
servanV  here  does  not  imply  any  equality  of  rank  between  these  two, 
or  that  they  filled  similar  ofiices  \\  but  indicates  that  they  stood  both  in 
the  same  relation  of  servants  to  a  common  lord.  And  the  sum  is  so 
small,  one  hundred  pence, — as  the  other  was  so  large,  ten  thousand  tal- 


*  Compare  Chardin  {Voy.  en  Perse,  Langlfes'  ed.,  v.  5,  p.  285) :  Toute  disgrace 
en  Perse  cmporte  infalliblcmcnt  avec  soi  la  confiscation  des  bicns,  ct  c'cst  un  re- 
verse prodigicux  et  ^pouvantablc  que  sc  changemcnt  de  fortune,  car  un  homme  se 
trouve  d<;nu6  en  un  instant  si  cntifercnient quil  n'a  ricn  h.  lui.  On  lui  6te  ses  biens, 
ses  esclavcs,  et  qucl(iucfois  jusqu'i  sa  fomme  et  ses  onfans  .  .  .  Son  sort  s'adoucit 
dans  la  suite.  Le  roi  declare  sa  volont6  sur  son  sujet.  On  lui  rend  presque  tou- 
jonrs  sa  faniille,  partie  de  ses  esclaves,  et  ses  meubles,  et  assez  souvent  il  revicnt 
an  bout  d'nn  temps  k  6tre  r^tabli  dans  les  bonnes  graces  de  la  cour,  et  a  rentrer 
dans  les  fni])lois. 

t  Tlieopliylact :   OuSels  yap  iv  T<f  0ey  /xeVcor.  acrvfiira^s. 

X  Such  would  have  been  lip.6^ovKos,  this  is  avv^ovKos. 

9 


X30  THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT. 

ents, — to  show  how  little  man  can  offend  against  his  brother,  compared 
with  the  amount  in  which  every  man  has  offended  against  Grod,*  so  that, 
in  Chrysostom's  words,  these  offences  to  those  are  as  a  drop  of  water  to 
the  boundless  ocean. f 

The  whole  demeanor  of  the  man  in  regard  of  his  fellow-servant  is 
graphically  described ;  "  He  laid  hands  on  him,  a7id  took  him  by  the 
throat.X  saying,  Pay  ine  that^  thou  oicest."  When  some  press  the  word 
in  the  original,  and  find  therein  an  aggravation  of  this  servant's  harshness 
and  cruelty,  as  though  he  was  not  even  sure  whether  the  debt  were  owing 
or  not,^  this  is  on  every  ground  to  be  rejected.  That  the  debt  was 
owing  is  plainly  declared  ; — he  found  a  fellow-servant  "  ivho  oioed  him  a 
hundred  j)ence  f  and  the  very  point  of  the  whole  parable  would  be  lost  by 
the  supposition  that  we  had  here  an  oppressor  or  extortioner  of  the  com- 
mon sort.  In  that  case  it  would  not  have  needed  to  speak  a  parable  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  the  law  would  have  condemned  such  a  one  ;  but 
here  we  have  a  far  deeper  lore — namely  this,  that  it  is  not  always  right, 
but  ofteii  most  wrong,  the  most  opposite  to  right,  to  press  our  rights, 
that  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  the  summum  jus  may  be  indeed  the  sum- 
ma  injuria.  This  man  was  one  who  would  faia  be  measured  to  by  God 
in  one  measure,  while  he  measured  to  his  brethren  in  another.  But  this 
may  not  be  ;  each  man  must  take  his  choice ;  he  may  dwell  in  the  king- 
dom of  grace ;  but  then,  receiving-  grace,  he  must  show  grace ;  finding 
love,  he  must  exercise  love.  If  on  the  contrary  be  exacts  the  uttermost, 
puslies  his  rights  as  far  as  they  will  go,  he  must  look  to  have  the  utter- 
most exacted  from  him,  and  in  the  measure  that  he  has  meted  to  have  it 
measured  back  to  him  again. — It  was  in  vain  that  '■'•his  fclloiv-servant  fell 
doion  at  his  feet,  and  hesovght  him"  using  exactly  the  same  words  of 
entreaty  which  he,  io  the  agony  of  his  distress,  had  used,  and  using  had 

*  The  Hebrew  talent  =  300  shekels.  (Exod.  xxsviii.  25,  26.)  Assuming  this, 
the  proportion  of  the  two  debts  would  be  as  follows  : 

10000  talents  :  100  pence  ::  1250000  :  1. 
that  is.  one  million  two  Imndred  and  fifty  thousand  to  one. 

t  Molancthon  :  Ideo  autcm  tanta  summa  ponitur,  ut  sciamus  nos  valde  miilta 
ct  magna  peccata  habere  coram  Deo.  Sicut  facilfe  invcnies  multa,  si  vitam  tuam 
aspicies ;  magna  est  securitas  earnalis,  magna  negligentia  in  invocatione,  magna 
diffidentia,  et  multaj  dubitationes  de  Deo.  Item  vagantur  sine  fine  cupiditates 
A'ari.-E. 

X  Erasmus  :  "■E.irviyiv,  obtorto  collo  trahebat,  .  .  .  pertinet  ad  vi  trahentem  vel 
in  carcerem,  vel  in  judicem. 

()  The  (1  Tj  6<pei\(is,  which  reading,  as  the  more  difiicult,  is  to  be  preferred  to 
6  Tt  6(pelKeis,  and  which  is  retained  by  Lachmann,  does  not  imply  any  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  debt  were  really  due  or  no;  but  the  conditional  form  was  originally, 
though  of  course  not  here,  a  courteous  form  of  making  a  demand,  as  there  is  often 
the  same  courteous  use  of  lf<rws. 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  131 

found  mercy:  he  continued  inexorable;  he  ^^went"  that  is,  departed, 
dragging  the  other  with  him  till  he  could  consign  him  into  the  sate 
keeping  of  the  jailer;  and  thus  in  the  words  of  St.  Chrysostom,  he 
refused  '•  to  recognize  the  port  in  which  he  had  himself  so  lately  escaped 
shipwreck  ;"  but  delivered  over  his  fellow-servant  to  the  extreme  severity 
of  the  law,  unconscious  that  he  was  condemning  himself,  and  revoking 
his  own  mercy. 

But  such  is  man,  so  hard-hearted  and  cruel,  when  he  walks  other- 
wise than  in  a  constant  sense  of  forgiveness  received  from  God ;  igno- 
rance or  forgetfulness  of  his  own  guilt  makes  him  harsh,  unforgiving,  and 
cruel  to  others ;  or  if  by  chance  he  is  not  so,  he  is  only  hindered  from 
being  so  by  the  weak  defences  of  natural  character,  which  may  at  any 
moment  be  broken  down.  The  man  who  knows  not  his  own  guilt,  is  ever 
ready  to  exclaim,  as  David  in  the  time  of  his  worst  sin  (2  Sam.  xii.  5), 
"  The  man  that  hath  done  this  thing  shall  surely  die ;"  to  be  as  extreme 
in  judging  others,  as  he  is  slack  in  judging  himself;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  they  that  are  spiritual  to  whom  Paul  commits  the  restoring 
of  a  brother  who  should  be  '-overtaken  in  a  fault"  (Gal.  vi.  1);  and 
when  he  urges  on  Titus  the  duty  of  being  gentle,  and  showing  meekness 
unto  all  men,  he  adds  (Tit.  iii.  3),  "For  we  ourselves  also  were  sometimes 
foolish,  disobedient,  deceived,  serving  divers  lusts  and  pleasures."  In 
exact  harmony  with  this  view  is  that  passage  (Matt.  i.  19),  in  which  it  is 
said  that  Joseph,  "  being  a  just  man,"*  would  not  make  Mary  a  public 
example,  whom  yet  he  must  have  believed  to  have  done  him  grievous 
wrong.  It  is  just  in  man  to  be  humane, — to  be  humane  is  human; 
none  but  the  altogether  righteous  may  press  his  utmost  rights ;  whether 
he  will  do  so  or  no  is  determined  by  altogether  diiferent  considerations, 
but  he  has  not  that  to  hold  his  hand,  which  every  man  has,  even  the 
sense  of  his  own  proper  guilt.     (John  viii.  7-9.) 

But  not  in  heaven  only  is  there  indignation,  when  men  are  thus 
measuring  to  others  in  so  different  a  measure  from  that  which  has  been 
measured  to  them.  There  are  on  earth  also  those  who  have  learned 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  mercy  which  the  sinner  finds,  and  the 
obligations  which  it  lays  on  him — and  who  grieve  over  all  the  lack  of 
love  and  lack  of  forbearance  which  they  behold  around  them :  "  IV/ien 
his  fellow-servants  saw  ichat  was  done,  they  were  very  sorry?''  Tlmf 
were  sorry — their  lord  (ver.  34)  was  wroth ;  to  them  grief,  to  him  anger, 
is  ascribed.  The  distinction  is  not  accidental,  nor  without  its  grounds. 
In  man,  the  sense  of  his  own  guilt,  the  deep  consciousness  that  whatever 
sin  he  sees  come  to  ripeness  in  another,  exists  in  its  germ  and  seed  in 
his  own  heart,  the  feeling  that  all  flesh  is  one,  and  that  the  sin  of  one 

*  Ai'/cowj,  which  Chrysostom  makes  there=xp7j(rT({j,  inidK-fis. 


J32  THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT. 

calls  for  humiliation  from  all  will  ever  cause  sorrow  to  be  the  predo- 
minant feeling  in  his  heart,  when  the  spectacle  of  moral  evil  is  brought 
before  his  eyes ;  but  in  God  the  pure  hatred  of  sin,*  which  is,  indeed, 
his  love  of  lioliness  at  its  negative  side,  finds  place.  Being  sorry,  they 
"  came  arid  told  unto  their  lord  all  that  teas  done ,-"  even  as  the  right- 
eous complain  to  God,  and  mourn  in  their  prayer  over  the  oppressions 
that  are  wrouglit  in  their  sight :  the  things  which  they  cannot  set  right 
themselves,  tlie  wrongs  which  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  redress 
themselves,  they  can  at  least  bring  unto  him,  and  he  hears  their  cry. 
The  king  summons  the  unthankful  and  unmerciful  servant  into  his 
presence,  and  addresses  to  him  words  of  severest  rebuke,  which  it  is 
noticeable  he  had  not  used  before  for  his  debt's  sake,  but  now  he  uses 
on  account  of  his  cruelty  and  ingratitude — "O  tlwu  wicked  servant^\ 
I  forgave  tJiee  all  that  debt^  because  thou  desiredst  me:  shouldest  7iot 
thou  also  have  had  compassion  on  thy  fellow-servant,  even  as  I  had 
pity  on  tliee  ?" — wert  thou  not  bound,  was  there  not  a  moral  obligation 
on  thee,  to  show  compassion,, — even  as  compassion  had  been  shown  to 
thee?J:  We  may  here  observe,  that  the  guilt  laid  to  his  charge  is  this, 
not  that,  needing  mercy,  he  refused  to  show  it,  but  that  having  received 
mercy  he  remains  unmerciful  still ;  a  most  important  difference ! — so 
that  they  who  like  him  are  hard-hearted  and  cruel,  do  not  thereby  bear 
witness  that  they  have  received  no  mercy ;  on  the  contrary,  the  stress  of 
their  offence  is,  that  having  received  an  infinite  mercy,  they  remain 
unmerciful  yet.  The  objective  fact,  the  great  mercy  for  the  world,  that 
Christ  has  put  away  sin  and  that  we  have  been  made  partakers  in  our 
baptism  of  that  benefit,  stands  firm,  whether  we  allow  it  to  exercise  a 
purifying,  sanctifying,  humanizing  influence  on  our  hearts  or  not.  Our 
faith  apprehends,  indeed,  the  benefit,  but  has  not  created  it,  any  more 
than  our  opening  our  eyes  upon  the  sun  has  set  it  in  the  heavens. 

'•'■And  his  lord  was  ivroth,  and  delivered  him  to  tJie  tormentors^^ 
according  to  that  word,  "  He  shall  have  judgment  without  mercy,  that 


*  On  the  language  of  Scripture,  attributing  anger,  repentance,  jealousy  to  God, 
there  are  some  very  valuable  remarks  in  Augustine's  reply  to  the  cavils  of  a  Mani- 
clu-ean  {Con.  Adv.  Leg.  et  Proph.,  1. 1,  c.  20) :  Poenitentia  Dei  non  est  post  errorem : 
Ira  Dei  not  babet  perturbati  animi  ardorem  :  Misericordia  Dei  non  habet  compa- 
tientis  miserum  cor  :  Zelus  Dei  non  babet  mentis  livorem.  Sed  poenitentia  Dei 
dicitur  rerum  in  ejus  potestate  constitutarum  borainibus  inopinata  mutatio :  Ira 
Dei  est  vindicta  peccati :  Misericordia  Dei  est  bonitas  opitulantis  :  Zelus  Dei  est 
providentia  qua.  non  sinit  eos  quos  subditos  habet  impime  amare  quod  prohibet. 
Cf.  Ad  Simplic.,  1.  2,  qu.  2. 

t  Bcngel :  Sic  non  vocatus  fuerat  ob  debitum,— a  remark  which  Origen  and 
Chrysostom  had  already  made. 

t  See  CHRYSo.sT:iM,.£>e  Simult.,  Horn.  20,  6,  an  admirable  discourse. 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  133 

hath  showed  no  mercy."  (Jam.  ii.  13.)  Before  he  had  dealt  with  him 
as  a  creditor  with  a  debtor,  now  as  a  judge  with  a  criminal.  "  Tlie 
tor  mentor  s^^  are  not  merely  the  keepers  of  the  prison  as  such ;  but  those 
who  also,  as  the  word  implies,  shall  make  the  life  of  the  prisoner  bitter 
to  him;  even  as  there  are  ^•tormentors''^  in  that  world  of  woe.  whereof 
this  prison  is  a  figure — fellow-sinners  and  evil  angels — instruments  of 
the  just,  yet  terrible  judgments  of  God.*  But  here  it  is  strange  that 
the  king  delivers  the  offender  to  prison  and  to  punishment  not  for  his 
ingratitude  or  cruelty,  but  for  the  very  debt  which  would  appear  before 
to  have  been  entii-ely  and  without  conditions  remitted  to  him.  When 
Hammond  says,  that  the  king  ••  revoked  his  designed  mercy,"  and  would 
transfer  that  to  the  relation  between  God  and  sinners,  this  is  an  example 
of  those  evasions  of  a  difficulty  by  help  of  an  ambiguous  expression,  or 
a  word  ingeniously  thrust  in  by  the  commentator,  which  are  so  frequent 
even  in  some  of  the  best  interpreters  of  Scripture.  It  was  not  merely 
a  mercy  designed,  the  king  had  not  merely  jnirposed  to  forgive  him,  but 
in  the  distinct  words  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  parable  he  '■'•fargave  him 
tlie  debt."  An  ingenious  explanation  is  that  wliich  would  make  the  debt 
for  which  he  is  now  cast  into  prison,  the  debt  of  mercy  and  love,  which 
he  had  not  paid,  but  which  yet  was  due,  according  to  that  word  of  St. 
Paul's,  "  Owe  no  man  any  thing,  but  to  love  one  another ;"  but  neither 


*  Grotius  makes  the  fiaa-avia-Tal  meTc\y^5e(riJio<pvXaKes.  and  Kuinoel.  who  ob- 
serves that  debtors  arc  given  to  safe  kee])ing.  but  not  to  tortures ;  but  this  seems 
rather  inaccurately  stated,  since  we  know,  for  instance,  that  in  early  times  of  Rome 
there  were  certain  legal  tortures,  in  the  shape,  at  least,  of  a  chain  weighing  fifteen 
pounds,  and  a  pittance  of  food  barely  sufficient  to  sustain  life  (see  Arnold's  Hist, 
of  Rome,  v.  1,  p.  136),  which  the  creditor  was  allowed  to  apply  to  the  debtor  foi 
the  purpose  of  bringing  him  to  terms  ;  and  no  doubt  they  often  did  not  stop  here. 
The  old  centurion  (Livy,  2.  23)  complains  :  Ductura  se  ab  creditore  non  in  servi- 
tium,  sed  in  ergastulum  et  carnificinam  esse :  inde  ostentare  tergum.  foedum  recen- 
tibus  vestigiis  vulnerum.  In  the  East.  too.  where  there  is  a  continual  suspicion 
that  those  who  may  appear  the  poorest,  and  who  affirm  themselves  utterly  insol- 
vent, are  actually  in  possession  of  some  secret  hoards  of  wealth,  as  is  very  often 
the  case,  the  torture  (fidffavos),  in  one  shape  or  another,  would  be  often  applied,  as 
we  know  that  it  is  often  nowadays,  to  make  the  debtor  reveal  these  hoards  ;  or  if 
not  with  this  hope,  his  life  is  often  made  bitter  to  him  for  the  purpose  of  wringing 
the  money  demanded,  from  the  compassion  of  his  friends.  In  all  these  cases  the 
jailer  would  be  naturally  the  instrument  employed  for  the  purpose  of  inflicting 
these  pains  on  the  prisoner ;  (sec  1  Kin.  xxii.  27  ;)  so  that  there  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  understand  bythe.se  •lorvicntors."  merely  the  keepers  of  the  prison, 
"  the  jailors."  as  Tyndale's  and  Cranmer's  Bibles  give  it.  and  not  rather  accept  the 
word  in  its  proper  sense.  Besides  if  the  unforgiving  servant  had  merely  been 
given  into  ward,  his  punishment  would  now  have  been  less  than  that  with  which 
he  was  threatened,  when  his  offence  was  not  near  so  great  as  now  it  had  become — 
for  then  he  was  to  have  been  sold  into  slavery. 


134  THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT. 

can  this  be  accepted  as  satisfactory.  Nor  are  the  cases  of  Adonijah  and 
Shimei  (1  Kin.  ii.),  which  are  sometimes  adduced,  altogether  in  point. 
They  no  doubt,  on  occasion  of  their  later  offences,  were  punished  far 
more  severely  than  probably  they  would  have  been,  had  it  not  been  for 
their  former  offences ;  yet  i^^till  it  is  not  the  former  crimes  which  are 
revived  that  they  may  be  punished,  but  the  later  offence  which  calls 
down  its  own  punishment ;  and  moreover,  to  produce  parallels  from  the 
questionable  acts  of  imperfect  men,  is  but  a  poor  way  of  establishing  the 
righteousness  of  God. 

The  question  herein  involved,  Do  sins,  once  forgiven,  return  on  the 
sinner  through  his  after  offences  ?  is  one  frequently  and  fully  discussed 
by  the  Schoolmen  ;*  and  of  course  this  parable,  and  the  arguments 
which  may  be  drawn  from  it,  always  take  a  prominent  place  in  such 
discussions.  But  it  may  be  worthy  of  consideration,  whether  the 
difficulties  do  not  arise  mainly  from  our  allowing  ourselves  in  too 
dead  and  formal  a  way  of  contemplating  the  forgiveness  of  sins ; — from 
our  suffering  the  earthly  circumstances  of  the  remission  of  a  debt  to 
embarrass  the  heavenly  truth,  instead  of  regarding  them  as  helps,  but 
at  the  same  time  weak  and  often  failing  ones,  for  the  setting  forth  that 
truth.  One  cannot  conceive  of  remission  of  sins  apart  from  living 
communion  with  Christ :  this  is  one  of  the  great  ideas  brought  out  in 
our  baptismal  service,  that  we  are  members  of  a  righteous  Person 
and  justified  in  him.  But  if  through  sin  we  cut  ourselves  off  from 
communion  with  him.  we  fall  back  into  a  state  of  nature,  which  is  of 
itself  a  state  of  condemnation  and  death,  a  state  upon  which  therefore 
the  wrath  of  God  is  abiding.  If  then,  laying  apart  the  contemplation 
of  a  man's  sins  as  a  formal  debt,  which  must  either  be  forgiven  him  or 
not — we  contemplate  the  life  out  of  Christ  as  a  state  of  wrath,  and  the 
life  in  Christ  as  a  state  of  grace,  the  first  a  walking  in  darkness,  and 
the  other  a  walking  in  the  light,  we  can  better  understand  how  a  man's 
sins  should  return  upon  him;  that  is,  he  sinning  anew  falls  back  into  the 
darkness  out  of  which  he  had  been  delivered,  and  no  doubt  all  that  he 
has  done  of  evil  in  former  times  adds  to  the  thickness  of  that  darkness, 
causes  the  wrath  of  God  to  abide  more  terribly  on  that  state  in  which 
he  now  is,  and  therefore  upon  him.  (John  v.  14.)  Even  as  also  it  must 
not  be  left  out  of  sight  that  all  forgiveness  short  of  the  crowning  act  of 

*  By  Pet.  Lombard,  1.  4,  dist.  22 ;  AauiNAS  {Siivi.  TheoL,  pars  3,  qu.  88),  and 
H.  DE  Sto  Victore.  {Dc  Sacrum.,  1.  2,  pars  14,  c.  9:  Utrum  peccata  semel  dimissa 
redcant.)  Cf.  Augustine,  De  Bapt.,  Con.  Don.,  1.  1,  c.  12.  Cajetan,  quoting  Rom. 
xi.  29.  -the  gifts  of  God  are  without  repentance"  (d^6To/.ieA.7jTo),  explains  thus 
the  recalling:  of  the  pardon  which  liad  once  been  granted  :  Repetuntur  debita  semel 
donata.  non  ut  fuerant  prius  debita,  sed  ut  niod6  effecta  sunt  materia  ingratitudi- 
nis, — which  is  exactly  the  decision  of  Aquinas. 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT.  135 

forgiveness  and  mercy,  which  will  find  place  on  the  day  of  judgment, 
and  will  be  followed  by  a  total  impossibility  of  sinning  any  more,  is 
conditional, — in  the  very  nature  of  things  so  conditional,  that  the 
condition  must  in  every  case  be  assumed,  whether  stated  or  no ;  that 
condition  being  that  the  forgiven  man  abide  in  faith  and  obedience,  in 
that  state  of  grace  into  which  he  has  been  brought ;  which  he  whom  the 
unmerciful  servant  here  represents,  had  not  done,  but  on  the  contrary 
evidently  and  plainly  showed  by  his  conduct,  that  he  had  '-forgotten 
that  he  was  purged  from  his  old  sins."  He  that  is  to  partake  of 
the  final  salvation  must  abide  in  Christ,  else  he  will  be  "cast  forth 
as  a  branch,  and  withered."  (John  xv.  G.)  This  is  the  condition,  not 
arbitrarily  imposed  from  without,  but  belonging  to  the  very  essence  of 
the  salvation  itself;  as,  if  one  were  drawn  from  the  raging  sea,  and  set 
upon  the  safe  shore,  the  condition  of  his  continued  safety  would  be  that 
he  abode  there,  and  did  not  again  cast  himself  into  the  raging  water's. 
In  this  point  of  view  an  interesting  parallel  will  be  supplied  to  this 
parable  by  1  John  i.  7,  '•  If  we  walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in  the  light, 
we  have  fellowship  one  with  another,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his 
Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin."  He  whom  this  servant  represents  does 
not  abide  in  the  light  of  love,  but  falls  back  into  the  old  darkness ;  he 
has,  therefore,  no  fellowship  with  his  brother,  and  the  cleansing  power 
of  that  blood  ceases  from  him. 

It  is  familiar  to  many  that  the  Romish  theologians  have  often  found 
an  argument  for  purgatory,  in  the  words  "  till  he  should  pay  all  that  'teas 
due"*  as  on  the  parallel  expression.  Matt.  v.  26 ;  as  though  they  desig- 
nated a  limit  beyond  which  the  punishment  should  not  extend.  But  it 
seems  plain  enough  that  the  phrase  is  nothing  more  than  a  proverbial 
one,  to  .signify  that  the  offender  should  now  be  dealt  with  according  to 
the  extreme  rigor  of  the  law  ;t  that  he  should  have  justice  without  mer- 
cy, that  always  paying,  he  should  never  have  paid  oif  his  debt.  For 
since  man  could  never  acquit  the  slightest  portion  of  the  debt  in  which 
he  is  indebted  to  God,  the  putting  that  as  a  condition  of  his  libei-ation, 
which  it  was  impossible  could  ever  be  fulfilled,  was  the  strongest  possi- 
ble way  of  expressing  the  eternal  duration  of  his  punishment;  just  as, 
when  the  Phocaeans  abandoning  their  city  swore  that  they  would  not 
return  to  it  again,  till  the  mass  of  iron  which  tliey  plunged  into  the  sea 
appeared  once  more  upon  the  surface,  it  was  in  fact  the  most  emphatic 

*  Sec  Gerhard's  Loci  T/icoU.,  loc.  27,  c.  8.  Chrysostom  rightly  explains  it, 
Toxntari  SnqveKus,  oUre  yap  airoSaxrei  ttotL  and  Augustine  (/?t'  Scrm.  Dovt.  in  Mmi., 
1.  1,  c.  11) :  Donee  solvas  . .  .  miror  si  non  cam  significat  poenani  quai  voaitnr  ajter- 
na.     So  Rcmigins:  Semper  solvct,  sod  nuncjuam  pcrsolvct. 

t  Ju,st  as  the  Roman  proverbs,  Ad  nunium  solvere,  ad  cxtremnm  as.sem  sol- 
vtre. 


136  THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVANT. 

form  they  could  devise  of  declaring  that  they  would  never  return  ;— 
such  an  emphatic  expression  is  the  present.* 

The  Lord  concludes  with  a  word  of  earnest  warning :  "  So  likewise 
shall  my  heavenly  Fatliet-  do  also  unto  you,  if  ye  from  your  ]iearts\  for- 
give not  every  one  his  brotlicr  tlieir  trespasses."  '•  &"• — with  the  same 
rigor ;  such  treasures  of  wrath,  as  well  as  such  treasures  of  grace,  are 
with  him.  He  who  could  so  greatly  forgive,  can  also  so  greatly  punish. 
•Chrysostom  observes,  that  he  says,  my  heavenly  Father,  meaning  to 
imply — yours  he  will  not  be,  since  so  acting  you  will  have  denied  the 
relationship ;  but  this  observation  can  scarcely  be  correct,  since  our 
Lord  often  says.  My  Father,  when  no  such  reason  can  be  assigned  (as 
ver.  19).  On  the  declaration  itself  we  may  observe  that,  according  to 
the  view  given  in  Scripture,  the  Christian  stands  in  a  middle  point, 
between  a  mercy  received  and  a  mercy  yet  needed.  Sometimes  the  first 
is  urge/i  upon  him  as  an  argument  for  showing  mercy — "  forgiving  one 
another  as  Christ  forgave  you"  (Col.  iii.  13;  Ephes.  iv.  32);  sometimes 
the  last,  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy"  (Matt. 
V.  7) ;  '•  Forgive  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven"  (Luke  vi.  37 ;  Jam  v.  9) ; 
and  so  the  son  of  Sirach  (xxviii.  3,  4),  "  One  man  beareth  hatred  against 
another,  and  doth  he  seek  pardan  from  the  Lord  %  he  showeth  no  mercy 
to  a  man  who  is  like  himself,  and  doth  he  ask  forgiveness  of  his  own 
sins  !" — so  that  while  he  is  ever  to  look  back  on  the  mercy  received  as 
the  source  and  motive  of  the  mercy  which  he  shows,  he  also  looks  for- 
ward to  the  mercy  which  he  yet  needs,  and  which  he  is  assured  that  the 
merciful,  according  to  what  Bengel  beautifully  calls  the  Benigna  talio 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  shall  receive  as  a  new  provocation  to  its  abun- 
dant exercise.  Tholuck  has  some  good  remarks  upon  this  point:  "  From 
the  circumstance  that  mercy  is  here  [Matt.  v.  7]  promised  as  the  recom- 
pense of  anterior  mercy  on  our  part,  it  might  indeed  be  inferred  that 
under  '  merciful'  we  are  to  imagine  such  as  have  not  yet  in  any  degree 
partaken  of  mercy  ;  but  this  conclusion  would  only  be  just  on  the  sup- 
position, that  the  divine  compassion  consisted  in  an  isolated  act,  which 
could  be  done  to  man  but  once  for  all.  Seeing,  however,  that  it  is  an 
act  which  extends  over  the  whole  life  of  the  individual,  and  reaches  its 

*  Just  so  Macbeth  thinks  he  has  the  strong-cRt  assurance  of  safety,  while  that  is 
put  as  a  condition  of  his  defeat,  which  he  counts  can  never  come  to  imss  : 

"  Let  them  fly  all ; 
Till  Birnam  wood  remove  to  Dujisinane 
I  cannot  taint  with  fear." 

t  'Airb  Toiv  Kap5iicv=iK  ^vxvs,  Ephes.  vi.  6;  to  the  exclusion,  not  merely  of  acts 
■of  hostility,  but  also  of  all  /xurimKaKia.  H.  de  Sto  Victore:  Ut  nee  ojjere  exerceat 
vindictam.  nee  corde  reservet  nialitiam  ;  and  Jerome  :  Dominus  addidit,  de  cordi- 
bus  vestris,  lit  omnem  simulationem  fictse  pacis  averteret.  ^ 


THE  UNMERCIFUL  SERVAN-T.  137 

culminating  point  in  eternity,  it  behooves  us  to  consider  the  compassion 
of  God  for  man,  and  man  for  his  brethren,  as  reciprocally  calling  forth 
and  affording  a  basis  for  one  another."*  And  this  seems  the  explanation 
of  a  difficulty  suggested  by  Origeu,t  namely,  where  in  time  we  are  to 
place  the  transactions  shadowed  forth  in  this  parable ! — for  on  the  one 
hand,  there  are  reasons  why  they  should  be  placed  at  the  end  of  this 
present  dispensation,  since,  it  might  be  asked,  when  else  does  God  take 
account  with  his  servants  for  condemnation  or  acquittal  ?  while  yet  on 
the  other  hand,  if  it  were  thus  placed  at  the  end  of  the  dispensation, 
what  further  opportunity  would  there  be  for  the  forgiven  servant  to 
show  the  harshness  which  he  actually  does  show  to  his  fellow-servant? 
The  difficulty  disappears,  when  we  no  longer  contemplate  forgiveness  as 
an  isolated  act,  which  must  take  place  at  some  definite  moment,  but 
consider  it  as  ever  going  forward, — as  running  parallel  with  and  extend- 
ing over  the  entire  life4 

*  Anskgiing  der  Bergprcdigt,  p.  93. 

t  Comm.  in  Malth.,  xviii. 

%  There  is  a  fine  story  illustrative  of  this  parable,  told  by  Floury  {Hist.  Eccks., 
v.  2,  p.  334.)  It  is  brieflj'  this.  Between  two  Christians  at  Antioch  enmity  and 
division  had  fallen  out.  After  a  Avhile  one  of  them  desired  to  be  reconciled,  but 
the  other,  who  was  a  priest,  refused.  While  it  was  thus  with  them,  the  persecu- 
tion of  Valerian  Ix'gan ;  and  Sapricius,  the  priest,  having  boldly  confessed  himself 
a  Christian,  was  on  the  way  to  death.  Nicephorus  met  him  and  again  sued  for 
peace,  whicli  was  again  refused.  While  he  was  seeking  and  the  other  refusing, 
they  arrived  at  the  place  of  execution.  He  that  should  have  been  the  martyr  was 
here  terrified,  offered  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  and  despite  the  entreaties  of  the 
other  did  so,  making  shipwreck  of  his  faith :  while  Nicephorus,  boldly  confessing, 
stepped  in  his  place,  and  received  the  cro«ai  which  Sapricius  lost.  This  w-hole 
story  runs  finely  parallel  with  our  parable.  Before  Sapricius  could  have  had  grace 
to  confess  tints  to  Christ,  he  must  have  had  his  own  ten  thousand  talents  forgiven; 
but  refusing  to  forgive  a  far  lesser  wrong,  to  put  away  thq  displeasure  he  liad 
taken  up  on  some  infinitely  lighter  grounds  against  his  brother,  he  forfeited  all  the 
advantages  of  his  position,  his  Lord  was  angry,  took  away  from  his  grace,  and  suf- 
fered hin^.  again  to  fall  under  those  powers  of  evil  from  which  he  had  been  once 
delivered.  It  comes  out,  too,  in  this  story,  that  it  is  not  merely  the  outward  wrong 
and  outrage  upon  a  brother,  which  constitutes  a  likeness  to  the  immeruifnl  servant, 
but  the  unforgiving  temiwr,  even  apart  from  all  such.  So  Augustine  {Qiucst. 
Evang.,  1.  1,  qu.  25) :  Noluit  ignoscere,  .  .  .  intelligendum,  tenuit  contra  eum  hunc 
animum,  ut  supplicia  illi  veUet. 


IX. 

THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

Matthew  xx.  1-16. 

This  parable  stands  in  closest  connection  with  the  four  last  verses  of 
the  preceding  chapter,  and  can  only  be  rightly  understood  by  their  help, 
so  that  the  actual  division  of  the  chapters  is  here  peculiarly  unfortunate, 
causing,  as  it  has  often  done,  this  parable  to  be  explained  quite  indepen- 
dently of  the  context,  and  without  any  attempt  to  show  the  circumstances 
out  of  which  it  sprung.  And  yet  on  the  right  tracing  of  this  connection, 
and  the  showing  how  the  parable  grew  out  of,  and  was  in  fact  an  answer 
to.  Peter's  tjuestioa,  "  What  shall  we  have  1"  the  success  of  the  exposi- 
tion will  mainly  depend.  The  parable  now  to  be  considered  is  only  sec- 
ond to  that  of  the  Unjust  Steward  in  the  number  of  explanations,*  and 
those  the  most  widely  different,  that  have  been  proposed  for  it ;  as  it  is 
also  only  second  to  that,  if  indeed  second,  in  the  difficulties  which  beset 
it.  Tlicse  Chrysostomf  states  clearly  and  strongly;  though  few,  I  think, 
will  be  wholly  satisfied  with  his  solution  of  them.  There  is  first  the  dif- 
ficulty of  bringing  the  parable  into  harmony  with  the  saying  by  which 
it  is  introduced  and  concluded,  and  which  it  is  plainly  intended  to  illus- 
trate :  and  secondly,  there  is  the  moral  difficulty,  the  same  as  finds  place 
in  regard  of  the  elder  brother  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son, — 
namely,  how  can  one  who  is  himself  a  member  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
"  be  held,"  as  Chrysostom  terms  it,  "  by  that  lowest  of  all  passions,  envy, 
and  an  evil  eye,"  grudging  in  his  heart  the  favors  shown  to  other  mem- 
bers of  that  kingdom  ?  or,  if  it  be  denied  that  these  murmurers  and 
envious  are  members  of  that  kingdom,  how  is  this  denial  reconcilable 

*  na.so  {Lcben  Jcsu,  p.  147),  gives  the  literature  connected  with  this  parable, 
consisting  of  no  less  than  fifteen  essays,  most  of  them  separately  published ;  and 
has  yet  omitted  some,  of  which  the  titles  are  given  in  Wolf's  Cii,rtz. 

t  In  Matth.,  Horn.  64. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  139 

with  the  fact  of  their  having  labored  all  day  in  the  vineyard,  and  ulti 
mately  carrying  away  their  own  reward  ?  And  lastly,  there  is  the  dif- 
ficulty of  deciding  what  is  the  salient  point  of  the  parable,  the  main  doc- 
trine which  we  are  to  gather  from  it. 

Of  those  who  have  sought  to  interpret  it  there  are  first  they,  who 
see  in  the  equal  penny  to  all,  the  key  to  the  whole  matter,  and  who  say 
that  tlie  lesson  to  be  learned  is  this, — the  equality  of  rewards  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.*  This  was  the  explanation  which  Luther  gave  in  his 
earlier  works,  though  he  afterwards  saw  reason  to  alter  his  opinion.  But 
however  this  may  appear  to  agree  with  the  parable.f  it  evidently  agrees 
not  at  all  with  the  saying,  of  which  that  is  clearly  meant  to  be  the  illus- 
tration— "  Mcniy  that  are  first  shall  he  last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first  ;"\ 
for  that  equality  would  be, — not  a  reversing  of  their  order,  but  a  setting 
of  all  upon  a  level.  Others  aflBrra  that  the  parable  is  meant  to  set  forth 
this  truth, — that  God  does  not  regard  the  length  of  time  during  which 
men  are  occupied  in  his  work,  but  the  fidelity  and  strenuous  exertion 
with  which  they  accomplish  that  work.^  Of  this  view  there  will  pre- 
sently be  occasion  to  speak  more  at  large ;  it  will  be  enough  now  to  ob- 
serve that  the  assumption  that  the  last-hired  laborers  had  worked  more 
strenuously  than  the  first,  is  entirely  gratuitous  ; — this  circumstance,  if 
the  narrative  had  turned  on  it,  would  have  scarcely  been  omitted. — 
Calvin  again  asserts  that  its  purpose  is  to  warn  us  against  being  over- 
confident, because  we  have  begun  well ;  ||  lest  (though  this  is  not  his  illus- 

*  Augustine  also  (Serm.  343)  says  of  the  penny  to  all :  Denarius  ille  vitae  reter- 
na  est,  quaj  omnibus  par  est, — but  without  affirming  equality  in  the  kingdom  of 
God  ;  for  all  the  stars,  as  ho  goes  on  to  say.  are  in  the  same  firmament,  yet  "  one 
star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory :"  (Splendor  dispar,  ceelum  commune.) 
Cf  De  Sand.  Virgin.,  c.  26.  In  like  manner  Bkrnard,  In  Ps.  Qui  habitat, 
Serm.  9,  4;  and  see  Ambrose,  Ep.  7,  c.  11,  and  Gregory  the  Great,  Moral.,  1.  4, 
c.  36. 

t  Yet  Spanheim  {Dub.  Evang.,  v.  8,  p.  785)  is  not  easily  answered,  when 
against  this  he  says  :  Nee  enim  per  denarium  vita  aeterna  intelligi  potest,  quippe 
qui  denarius  datur  etiam  murmuratoribus  et  invidis,  nee  datus  exsatiat,  et  datur 
illis  qui  recedere  juben Ar  h  Domino,  (ver.  14.)  Atqui  nee  murmuratorum  portio 
eet  vitaajterna.  nee  invidorum.  nee  homines  k  Deo  abducit.  sed  conjungit  cum  illo, 
nee  uUi  datur.  cui  non  plenam  adfcrat  .satietatem  gaudiorum. 

■^  Fritzche,  indeed,  finds  no  diffieulty  in  giving  the  sense  of  the  gnome  thus : 
Qui  postremi  ad  Messiam  se  adplicuerunt.  jjrimis  accensebuntur.  et  qui  primi  emn 
secuti  sunt,  postremis  : — but  this  is  doing  evident  violence  to  the  words. 

()  So  Maldonatus :  Finis  parabohe  est  mercedem  vitfe  nRternas  non  tempori  quo 
quis  laboravit.  sed  labori  et  operi  (juofl  fecit  rc.s]iondere ;  and  KuiniK-I  the  same. 

II  Non  alio  Dominnm  spectusse  ([uam  ut  snos  ad  i)ergendum  continuis  stinmlis 
incitaret.  Scimus  enim  .segnitiem  fere  e.x  nimia.  fidncia  nasci.  If  we  found,  indeed, 
the  gnome  by  itself  we  might  then  say  that  such  was  his  purpose  in  it ;  sc^e  the 
admirable  use  which  Chrysostom  {In  Matth.,  Horn.  67,  ad  fincm)  makes  of  it,  in 
this  regard. 


140  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

tration),  like  the  hare  in  the  fable,  growing  careless  and  remiss  in  our 
exertions,  we  allow  others  to  outrun  us :  and  so  having  seemed  the  first, 
fall  into  the  hindmost  rank, — that  it  conveys  a  warning  that  no  one  be- 
gin to  boast,  or  consider  the  battle  won,  till  he  put  off  his  armor.  But 
neither  will  this  agree  with  the  circumstances  of  the  parable,  since  the 
laborers  who  were  first  engaged  are  not  accused  of  having  grown  slack 
in  labor  during  the  latter  part  of  the  day. 

There  are  others  who  make — not  the  penny  equal  to  all,  but  the  suc- 
cessive hours  at  which  the  difierent  bands  of  laborers  were  hired,  the 
most  prominent  circumstance  of  the  parable.  And  these  interpreters 
may  be  again  subdivided,  for  there  are  first  those  who,  as  Origen  and 
Hilary,  make  it  to  contain  a  history  of  the  different  summonses  to  a 
work  of  righteousness,  which  God  has  made  to  men  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world, — to  Adam, — to  Noah, — to  Abraham, — to  Moses, — and  lastly  to 
the  apostles,  bidding  them  each,  in  his  order,  to  go  work  in  his  vineyard. 
Of  these,  all  the  earlier  lived  during  weaker  and  more  imperfect  dispen- 
sations, and  underwent,  therefore,  a  harder  labor,  in  that  they  had  not 
such  abundant  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  such  clear  knowledge  of  the  grace  of 
God  in  Christ,  to  sustain  them,  as  the  later  called,  the  members  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Their  heavier  toil,  therefore,  might  aptly  be  set  forth 
by  a  longer  period  of  work,  and  that  at  the  more  oppressive  time  of  the 
day  (compare  Acts  xv.  10);  while  the  apostles,  and  the  rest  of  the 
faithful  who  were  called  into  God's  vineyard  at  the  eleventh  hour  (the 
last  time,  or  the  last  hour,  as  St.  John  [1  Ep.  ii.  18]  calls  the  Christian 
dispensation),  and  were  made  partakers  of  the  larger,  freer  grace  that 
was  now  given  in  Christ,  had  to  endure  little  by  comparison.  But  in 
regard  to  this  explanation,*  it  may  be  asked,  lohen  could  that  murmuring 
have  taken  place,  even  supposing  the  people  of  God  could  thus  grudge 
because  of  the  larger  grace  freely  bestowed  upon  others  1  Those  prior 
generations  could  not  have  so  murmured  in  their  lifetime,  for  before  the 
things  were  even  revealed  which  God  had  prepared  for  his  people  that 
came  after,  they  were  in  their  graves.     Far  less  is  it  to  be  conceived  as 

*  Wore  it  the  right  one,  John  iv.  35-.38  would  afford  a  most  interesting  parallel ; 
for  it  is  exactly  this  which  is  there  declared.  The  "other  men"  that  labored 
(ver.  38)  are  the  generations  that  went  before,  doing  their  harder  tasks  imdcr  the 
Law,  breaking  up  the  fallow  ground  of  men's  hearts,  and  with  toil  and  tears  sowing 
their  seed.— this  would  answer  to  the  bearing  here  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day. 
The  blossodness  of  the  disciples  is  there  magnified,  in  that  theirs  is  an  easier  task, 
the  reaping  and  gathering  in  of  the  spiritual  harvest ;  they  enter  upon  other  men's 
labors  ;— which  is  i\w  counterpart  to  the  coming  into  the  vineyard  at  the  eleventh 
hour.  But  the  true  feeling  of  the  first  laborers  and  of  the  last,  of  the  hardest- 
ta.sked  and  the  lightest,  is  there  also  declared,  the  only  feelmg  which  could  find 
place  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  they  "rejoice  together"  (ver  86),  are  unenvying 
partakers  of  the  same  joy. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  141 

finding  place  in  the  day  of  judgment,  or  in  the  kingdom  of  love  made  per- 
fect. Unless,  tlien,  we  quite  explain  away  the  niurnmring,  and  say  with 
Chrysostom,  that  the  Lord  only  introduced  it  to  magnify  the  greatness 
of  the  things  freely  given  to  Ids  disciples,  which  he  would  thus  imply 
were  so  great  and  glorious,  that  those  who  lived  before  they  were  imparted 
might  be  provoked  to  murmur  at  the  comparison  of  themselves  with  their 
more  richly  endowed  successors,  were  it  possible  to  imagine  that  such  a 
feeling  of  envy  could  be  entertained  in  their  heart, — unless  we  accept 
this  ingenious  solution  of  the  difficulty,  this  explanation  of  the  parable 
seems  almost  untenable,  as,  were  it  worth  while,  much  more  might  be 
brought  against  it. — Then  there  are,  secondly,  tiiey  who,  in  the  different 
hours  at  which  the  laborers  are  hired,  see  the  different  periods  of  men's 
lives,  at  which  they  enter  on  the  work  of  the  Lord ;  and  who  affirm  that 
the  purpose  is  to  encourage  those  who  have  entered  late  on  his  service, 
now  to  labor  heartily,  not  allowing  the  consciousness  of  past  negligences 
to  dispirit  them,  since  they  too,  if  only  they  will  labor  with  their  might 
for  the  time,  long  or  short,  which  remains,  shall  receive  a  full  reward 
with  the  rest.  This  is,  in  the  main.  Chrysostom's  view  ;*  but  while, 
under  certain  limitations,  such  encouragement  may  undoubtedly  be 
drawn  from  the  parable,  it  is  another  thing  to  say  that  this  is  the  admo- 
nisliment  which  it  is  especially  meant  to  convey.  If  that  were  the  inter- 
pretation, in  what  living  connection  would  the  parable  stand  with  what 
went  before,  with  Peter's  question  which  occasioned  it.  or  with  the  spirit 
out  of  which  that  question  grew,  and  which  this  teaching  of  the  Lord 
was  meant  to  meet  and  to  correct? 

But  the  explanation  which  is  very  frequently  offered,  and  which 
certainly  contains  more  truth  in  it  than  all  which  have  hitherto  been 
passed  under  review,  is  that  which  makes  the  parable  a  warning  and  a 
prophecy,  of  the  causes  which  would  lead  to  the  rejection  of  the  Jews, 
the  fir.-<t  called  into  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord ; — these  causes  being 
mainly  their  proud  appreciation  of  themselves  and  of  their  own  work; 
their  dislike  at  seeing  the  Gentiles,  so  long  aliens  from  the  common- 
wealth nf  Israel,  put  on  the  same  footing,  admitted  at  once  to  equal 
privileges  with  themselves  in  the  kingdom  of  God: — and  an  agreement 
or  covenant  being  made  with  the  first  hired,  and  none  with  those  subse- 
quently engaged,  has  seemed  a  confirmation  of  this  view.  Doubtless 
this  ajiplication  of  the  parable  is  by  no  means  to  be  excluded.     It  was 

*  And  also  Jeromc'.s  {Comm.  in  Malth.)  :  Mihi  viclontnr  i>rim:t;  horrc  esse  ope- 
rarii  Saimu'l  et  Jcrcraias  ct  Bai)tista  .lohannes,  qui  po.ssuiit  cum  Psalini.stA  diccre, 
Ex  utcro  matris  nifas  Deus  es  tu.  Tcrtiaj  voro  hora;  operarii  sunt  qui  in  pubertate 
servirc  Dt'o  (^-ciji-runt.  Sextse  horaj.  qui  matura  a;tatc  suscepi-runt  juguni  Christi : 
noiiiP  (|ui  jam  dcclinaiit  ad  senium:  porro  xindecimne.  qui  ultinii  sencctute.  £t 
tamcn  omnes  parit<'r  accipiunt  praunium,  licet  divursus  labor  sit. 


142  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

notably  fulfilled  in  the  Jews ;  their  conduct  did  supply  a  solemn  con- 
firmation of  the  need  of  the  warning  here  given :  but  its  application  is 
universal  and  not  particular ;  this  fulfilment  was  only  one  out  of  many : 
for  our  Lord's  words  are  so  rich  in  meaning,  so  bring  out  the  essential 
and  penuanent  relations  between  man  and  God,  that  they  are  continually 
finding  their  fulfilment.  Had  this  however  been  the  meaning  which  our 
Lord  had  exclusively,  or  even  primarily,  in  his  eye,  we  should  expect  to 
hear  of  but  two  bands  of  laborers,  the  first  hired  and  the  last :  all  those 
who  come  between  would  only  serve  to  confuse  and  perplex  the  image. 
The  solution  sometimes  given  of  this  objection, — that  the  successive 
hirings  are  the  successive  summonses  to  the  Jews ;  first,  under  Moses 
and  Aaron ;  secondly,  under  David  and  the  kings ;  thirdly,  under  the 
Maccabasan  cliiefs  and  priests ;  and  lastly,  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.;  or  that  these  are  Jews.  Samaritans,  and  proselytes  of  greater  or 
less  strictness, — seems  devised  merely  to  escape  from  an  embarrassment, 
and  only  witnesses  for  its  existence  without  removing  it.* 

Better  then  to  say  that  the  parable  is  directed  against  a  wrong 
temper,  and  spirit  of  mind,  which  indeed  was  notably  manifested  in  the 
Jews,  but  which  not  merely  they,  but  all  men  in  possession  of  spiritual 
privileges,  have  need  to  be,  and  are  here,  warned  against :  while  at  the 
same  time  the  immediate  occasion  from  which  the  parable  rose,  was  not 
one  in  which  they  were  involved.  This  is  clear,  for  the  warning  was  not 
primarily  addressed  to  them,  but  to  the  apostles,  as  the  chiefest  and 
foremost  in  the  Christian  Church,  the  earliest  called  to  labor  in  the 
Lord's  vineyard — " tlie  first"  both  in  time,  and  in  the  amount  of  sufifer- 
ing  and  toil  which  they  would  have  to  undergo.  They  had  seen  the  rich 
young  man  (xix.  22)  go  sorrowful  away,  unable  to  abide  the  proof  by 
which  the  Lord  had  mercifully  revealed  to  him  how  strongly  he  was  yet 
holden  to  the  world  and  the  things  of  the  world.  They  (for  Peter  here, 
as  in  so  many  other  instances,  is  the  representative  and  spokesman  of 
all)  would  fain  know  what  their  reward  should  be,  who  had  done  this 
very  thing  from  which  he  had  shrunk,  and  had  forsaken  all  for  the 
Gospel's  sake.  (ver.  27.)  The  Lord  answers  them  first  and  fully,  that 
they  and  as  many  as  should  do  the  same  for  his  sake,  should  reap  an 
abundant  reward,  (ver.  28,  29.)  At  the  same  time  the  question  itself, 
"What  shall  we  have?"  was  not  a  right  one;  it  was  putting  their  relation 
to  their  Lord  on  a  wrong  footing ;  there  was  a  tendency  in  the  question 
to  bring  their  obedience  to  a  calculation  of  so  much  work,  so  much 
reward.      There  was  also  a  certain   self-complacency  lurking   in   this 

*  This  explanation  of  the  parable,  however,  is  maintained  hy,  and  satisfies, 
Grotius  :  and  also  by  Mr.  Greswell  {Exp.  nf  the  Par.,  v,  4,  p.  370,  seq.)  who  has 
done  for  it  every  thing  whereof  it  is  capable,  to  win  acceptance  for  it. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  143 

speech,  not  so  much  a  vain  confidence  in  themselves,  considered  by 
themselves,  as  a  comparison  for  self-exaltation  with  others — a  compa- 
rison between  themselves  who  had  not  shrunk  back  from  the  command 
to  forsake  all,  and  the  young  man  who  had  found  the  requirement  too 
hard  for  him.  That  spirit  of  self-exalting  comparison  of  ourselves  with 
others,  which  is  so  likely  to  be  stirring  when  we  behold  any  signal 
failure  on  their  part,  was  at  work  in  them  ;  and  the  very  answer  which 
the  Lord  gave  to  their  question  would  have  been  as  fuel  to  the  fire, 
unless  it  had  been  accompanied  with  the  warning  of  the  parable.  It  is 
true  that  this  self-complacent  thought  was  probably  only  as  an  under- 
thought  in  Peter's  mind,  obscurely  working  within  him,  one  of  which  he 
was  himself  hardly  conscious;  but  the  Lord,  who  knew  what  was  in  man, 
saw  with  a  glance  into  the  depths  of  his  heart,  and  having  given  an 
answer  to  the  direct  question,  went  on  by  this  further  teaching,  to  nip 
at  once  the  evil  sprout  in  the  bud  before  it  should  proceed  to  develope 
itself  further.  "Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast;"  this  was  the 
truth  which  they  were  in  danger  of  losing  sight  of,  and  which  he  would 
now  by  the  parable  enforce ;  and  if  nothing  of  works,  but  all  of  grace 
for  all,  then  no  glorying  of  one  over  another  could  find  place,  no  grudg- 
ing of  one  against  another,  no  claim  as  of  riglit  upon  the  part  of  an}-. 

First  indeed  the  Lord  answered  the  question,  "  What  shall  we 
have  ?"  As  they  in  deed  and  in  sincerity  had  forsaken  all  for  Christ's 
sake,  and  desired  to  know  what  their  reward  should  be,  he  does  not 
think  it  good  to  withhold  the  reply,  but  answers  them  fully. — the 
reward  shall  be  great.  But  having  answered  so,  his  discourse  takes 
another  turn.*  as  is  suflBciently  indicated  in  the  words,  '•  But  many  that 
are  first  shall  be  last ;"  and  he  will  warn  them  now  against  giving  place 
toj  much  to  that  spirit  out  of  which  the  question  proceeded :  for  there 


*  Gerhard :  Sub  fincm,  quia  Christo  Petri  et  reliciuorum  confidentia  nou  fuit 
ignota,  et  verendum  erat  nc  ob  magnificam  banc  promissioncra  sese  aliis  praefer- 
rent,  hunc  locum  gravi  sententia,  concludit,  qua  ipsos  et  in  primis  Petrum  sub 
modestia.  et  metu  continere  cupit,  Multi  autem  primi  erunt  novissimi.  et  novissimi 
primi . .  .  Nolite  ergo  altum  sapcre,  nolite  arroganter  de  vobis  ipsis  sontire.  So 
also  Olshausen,  who  refers  to  ver.  20-28  of  this  chapter  (of  Mark  x.  35),  as  an  evi- 
dence how  liable  the  promise  (xix.  28)  was  to  be  perverted  and  misunderstood  by 
the  old  man  which  was  not  yet  wholly  mortified  in  the  apostles.  But  the  whole 
matter  has  been  otrangely  reversed  by  some,  who  instead  of  a  warning  and  a  cau- 
tion here,  see  rather  in  the  parable  a  following  up  of  what  has  been  already  spoken : 
— "  You,  the  poor  and  desf)i.sed.  who  might  seem  the  last  called,  shall  be  first  in 
the  kingdom  of  God — while  the  first,  the  wi.se,  the  noble,  and  the  rich,  such, 
for  instance,  as  that  young  man  and  all  the  .spiritual  chiefs  of  the  nation,  shall  be 
last  in  the  day  of  the  Lord."  But  this  would  indeed  have  been  fuel  to  a  fire 
which  rather  needed  slaking,  and  which  it  was  the  very  purpose  of  the  parable  to 
slake. 


144   '      THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

was  therein  a  pluming  of  themselves  upon  their  own  work,  an  invidious 
comparison  of  themselves  with  others,  a  certain  attempt  to  bring  in  God 
as  their  debtor.  In  short,  the  spirit  of  the  hireling  spoke  in  that 
question,  and  it  is  against  this  spirit  that  the  parable  is  directed,  which 
might  justly  be  entitled,  On  the  nature  of  rewards  in  the  kingdom  of 
God, — the  whole  finding  a  most  instructive  commentary  in  Rom.  iv.  1-4, 
which  passage  supplies  a  parallel  not  indeed  verbal,  but  a  more  deeply 
interesting,  that  is,  a  real  parallel  with  the  present. 

As  far  as  it  is  addressed  to  Peter,  and  in  him  to  all  true  believers, 
the  parable  is  rather  a  warning  against  what  might  be,  if  they  were  not 
careful  to  watch  against  it,  than  a  prophecy  of  what  would  be.*  For  we 
cannot  imagine  him  who  dwells  in  love  as  allowing  himself  in  envious 
and  grudging  thoughts  against  any  of  his  brethren,  because,  though  they 
have  entered  later  on  the  service  of  God,  or  been  engaged  on  a  lighter 
labor,  they  will  yet  be  sharers  with  him  of  the  same  heavenly  reward, — 
or  refusing  to  welcome  them  gladly  to  all  the  blessings  and  privileges  of 
the  communion  of  Christ.  Least  of  all  can  we  imagine  him  so  to  forget 
that  he  also  is  saved  by  grace,  as  to  allow  such  hateful  feelings  to  come  to 
a  head,  actually  to  take  form  and  shape,  which  they  do  in  the  parable, — 
as  justifying  them  to  himself  or  to  God,  like  the  spokesman  among  the 
murmurers  here.  We  cannot  conceive  this  even  here  in  our  present 
imperfect  state,  and  much  less  in  the  perfected  kingdom  hereafter ;  for 
love  "rejoices  in  the  truth,"!  and  the  very  fact  of  one  so  grudging 
against  another  would  prove  that  he  himself  did  not  dwell  in  love,  and 
therefore  was  himself  under  sentence  of  exclusion  from  that  kingdom.^ 
It  is  then  a  warning  to  the  apostles,  and  through  them  to  all  believers, 
of  what  might  be, — not  a  prophecy  of  what  shall  be  with  any  that  share 
in  the  final  reward ; — a  solemn  warning  that  however  long  continued 
their  work,  abundant  their  labors,  yet  if  they  had  not  this  charity  to 
their  brethren,  this  humility  before  God,  they  were  nothing; — that 
pride  and  a  self-complacent  estimation  of  their  work,  like  the  fly  in  the 
ointment,  would  spoil  the  work,  however  great  it  might  be,  since  that 
work  stands  only  in  humility ;  and  from  first  they  would  fall  to  last. — 

*  Beng-el :  Respoctu  Apostolorura  non  est  prsedictio  sed  admonitia. 

t  In  the  beautiful  words  of  Leighton  {Pr<tlcct.  6.) :  'O  c\>Sf6vos  ii,w  rod  ^eiov  x(^- 
pov  sed  eaiitas  ahsolutissima,  qua  uuusquisque  simul  cimi  su&.  alterius  mutuo  feli- 
citate fruitur  et  beatus  est  ilia  scillieet  tanquani'  suk  collaitatus ;  unde  inter  iUos 
infinita  qui^dani  beatitudinis  repercussio  et  multiplicatio  est ;  qualis  foret  splendor 
aulc-e  auro  et  gemmis,  i)leno  regum  et  magnatum  chore,  nitentis,  cujus  parietes  spe- 
culia  uudique  lucidissimis  obtecti  cssent. 

I  Gregory  the  Great  says  excellently  {Ho7n.  19,  in  Evang.)  on  this  murmur- 
ing :  Coclorum  regnum  nullus  murmurans  accipit :  nuUus  qui  accipit,  murmurare 
poterit. 


THE  LABORERS  IN"  THE  VINEYARD.  145 

There  is  then  this  difference  between  the  narration  in  tlie  parable,  and 
the  truth  of  which  it  is  the  exponent,  that  while  it  would  not  have  been 
consistent  with  equity  for  the  householder  altogether  to  have  deprived 
the  first  laborers  of  their  hire,  notwithstanding  their  pride  and  their 
discontent,  so  that  consequently  they  receive  their  wages,  and  are  not 
punished  with  more  than  a  severe  rebuke,  yet  the  lesson  to  be  taught  to 
Peter,  and  through  him  to  all  disciples  in  all  times,  is,  that  the  first  may 
be  altogether  last,  that  those  who  seem  chiefest  in  labor,  yet,  if  they 
forget  withal  that  the  reward  is  of  grace  and  not  of  works,  and  begin  to 
boast  and  exalt  themselves  above  their  fellow-laborers,  may  aUogctlvefr 
lose  the  things  which  they  have  wrought  :*  and  those  who  seem  last, 
may  yet,  by  keeping  their  Immility,  be  acknowledged  first  in  the  day  of 
God ; — and  in  proof  of  this,  the  parable  which  follows  was  spoken. 

It  commences  thus :  "  Tlie  kingdom  of  Jieaven  is  like  unto  a  man 
that  is  a  Jwuse/toldcr,  tohich  went  out  early  in  the  morning  to  hire 
laborers  into  his  vinct/ard ;"  in  other  words.  The  manner  of  God's 
dealings  with  those  whom  he  calls  to  the  privileges  of  working  in  his 
Church. — that  is,  his  kingdom  in  its  present  imperfect  development, — is 
similar  to  that  of  a  householder,  who  went  early  in  the  morning  to  hire 
laborers.!  This  is  ever  true  in  the  heavenly  world,  that  God  seeks  his 
laborers,  and  not  they  him ;  '•  You  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have 
chosen  you."  (John  xv.  16.)  Every  summons  to  a  work  in  the  heavenly 
vineyard  is  from  the  Lord :  man's  lieart  never  originates  the  impulse ; 
all  which  is  man's  in  the  matter  is,  that  he  do  not  resist  the  summons, 
which  it  is  his  melancholy  prerogative  that  he  is  able  to  do.  It  is 
"  a  call,"  according  to  the  instructive  Scriptural  expression :  but  as  in 
the  natural  world  a  call  implies  no  force,  but  is  something  which  may  be 
obeyed  or  refused,  so  also  is  it  in  the  spiritual. 

The  householder  agreed  with  the  first  laborers  for  a  penny  a  day.  J 

*  Gregory  the  Great  again  (Moral.,  1.  19,  c.  21)  :  Perit  omne  quod  agitur,  si 
non  sollicitfe  in  humilitate  custoditur. 

t  Fleck:  Non  in  una.  persona,  sed  in  totft.  actionc  coliatio  consistit; — a  remark 
of  frequent  application. 

ij:  A  denarius,  a  Roman  silver  coin,  which  passed  current  as  equal  to  the  Greek 
drachm,  though  in  fact  some  few  grains  lighter.  It  was  =8^^.,  at  the  latter  end 
of  the  connnonwealth ;  afterwards,  something  less,  of  our  money.  It  was  not  an 
uncommon,  though  a  liberal  day's  pay.  (See  Tob.  v.  14.)  Morier,  in  his  Second 
Jounui/  thrmigh  Persia,  p.  265,  mentions  having  noted  in  the  market-place  at  Ha- 
niadan  a  custom  like  that  alluded  to  in  the  parable : — "  Here  we  observed  every 
morning  before  the  sun  rose,  that  a  numerous  band  of  peasants  were  collected  with 
vpades  in  their  hands,  waiting  to  be  hired  for  the  day  to  work  in  the  surrounding 
fields.  Tliis  custom  struck  me  as  a  most  hapi)y  illustration  of  our  Saviour's  para- 
ble. i)articu]arly  when.  ])assing  by  the  same  place  late  in  the  day,  we  found  others 
standing  idle,  and  remembered  his  words,  '  Why  stand  ye  here  all  the  day  idle  V 
10 


146  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

The  different  terms  upon  which  the  different  bands  of  laborers  went  to 
their  work,  would  scarcely  have  been  so  expressly  noted,  unless  stress 
were  to  be  laid  on  it.  An  agreement  was  made  by  these  first-hired  labor- 
ers before  they  entered  on  their  labor,  exactly  the  agreement  which 
Peter  wished  to  make,  "What  shall  we  have?" — while  those  subse- 
quently engaged  went  in  a  simpler  spirit,  trusting  that  whatever  was 
right  and  equitable  the  householder  would  give  them.  Thus  we  have 
here  upon  the  one  side  early  indications  of  that  wrong  spirit  which  pre- 
sently comes  to  a  head  (ver.  II,  12);  on  the  other  side,  we  have  the 
true  spirit  of  humble  waiting  upon  the  Lord,  in  full  assurance  that  he 
will  give  far  more  than  we  can  desire  or  deserve, — that  God  is  not  un- 
righteous to  forget  any  labor  of  love, — that  his  servants  can  safely  trust 
in  him,  who  is  an  abundant  rewarder  of  all  them  that  seek  and  that  serve 
him.* 

At  the  third,  at  the  sixth,  and  at  the  ninth  hour, — at  nine  in  the 
morning,  at  mid-day,  and  at  three  in  the  afternoon,!  he  again  went  into 
the  niarket-place.|  and  those  whom  he  found  there  disengaged,  sent  into 
his  vineyard. — "  And  about  the  eleventh  hour  he  went  out  and  found 
others  standing  idle,  and  saith  unto  them,  Why  stand  ye  Itere  all  the  day 
idle  V  All  activity  out  of  Christ,  all  labor  that  is  not  labor  in  his 
Church,  is  in  his  sight  a  standing  idle.  "  TJiey  say  iinto  him,  Because 
no  man  hath  hired  its."  There  was  a  certain  amount  of  rebuke  in  the 
question,  which  it  is  intended  that  this  answer  shall  clear  away ;  for  it 
belongs  to  the  idea  of  the  parable,  that  it  shall  be  accepted  as  perfectly 
satisfactory.  It  is  not  then  in  a  Christian  land,  where  men  grow  up 
under  sacramental  obligations,  with  the  pure  word  of  God  sounding  in 

as  most  applicable  to  their  situation,  for  on  putting  the  very  same  question  to  them 
they  answered  us,  '  Because  no  man  hath  hired  us.'  " 

*  Thus  Bernard,  in  a  passage  {In  Cant.,  Serm.  14,  4)  containing  many  interest- 
ing allusions  to  this  parable  :  Hie  [Juda^us]  pacto  conventionis,  ego  placito  volunta- 
tis innitor. 

t  These  would  not,  except  just  at  the  equinoxes,  bo  exactly  the  hours,  for  the 
Jews,  as  well  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  divided  the  natural  day,  that  between 
sunrise  and  sunset,  into  twelve  equal  parts,  (John  xi.  9,)  which  parts  must  of 
course  have  been  considerably  longer  in  summer  than  in  winter ;  for  though  the 
difference  between  the  longest  and  the  shortest  day  is  not  so  great  in  Palestine,  as 
with  ns,  yet  is  it  by  no  means  trifling ;  the  longest  day  is  of  14h  12™  duration,  the 
shortest  of  O""  48'".  with  a  difference  therefore  of  4''  24°,  so  that  an  hour  on  the 
longest  day  would  be  exactly  22™  longer  than  an  hour  on  the  shortest.  The  equi- 
•  noctial  hours  did  not  come  into  use  until  the  fourth  century.  (See  the  Did.  of  Gr. 
and  Rovi.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Hnra,  p.  485.)  Probably  the  day  was  also  divided  into  four 
larger  parts  here  indicated,  just  as  the  Roman  night  into  four  watches,  and  indeed 
the  Jewish  no  less :  the  four  divisions  of  the  latter  are  given  in  a  popular  form, 
Mark  xiii.  35.    (See  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  136.) 

X  Maldonatus  :  Totura  mundum  qui  extra  Ecclesiam  est. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  147 

their  ears,  that  this  answer  could  be  given — or  at  least,  only  in  such 
woful  cases  as  that  which  our  own  land  now  presents,  where  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Church  multitudes  have  been  allowed  to  grow  up  ignorant 
of  the  blessing  which  her  communion  affords,  and  the  responsibilities  it 
la3's  upon  them ; — and  even  in  their  mouths  there  would  only  be  a  par- 
tial truth  in  the  answer,  "  No  man  hath  hired  us ;"  since  even  they  can- 
not be  altogether  ignorant  of  their  Christian  vocation.  It  would  only  be 
when  the  kingdom  of  God  is  first  set  up  in  a  land,  enters  as  a  new  and 
hitherto  unknown  power,  that  sinful  men  with  full  truth  could  answer, 
"  No  ma?i  hath  hired  ?<s, — if  we  have  been  living  in  disobedience  to  God, 
it  has  been  because  we  were  ignorant  of  him. — if  we  were  serving  Satan, 
it  was  because  we  knew  no  other  master,  because  we  knew  not  tliat  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  living  for  God  and  for  his  glory,  and  bringing  forth 
fruit  to  the  honor  of  his  name." 

Yet  while  thus  the  excuse  which  the  laborers  in  the  parable  plead, 
appertains  not  to  them  who,  growing  up  within  the  Church,  have  de- 
spised to  the  last,  or  nearly  to  the  last,  God's  repeated  biddings  to  go 
work  in  his  vineyard — while  the  unscriptural  corollary  cannot  be  ap- 
pended to  the  parable,*  that  it  matters  little  at  what  time  of  men's  lives 
they  enter  heartily  upon  the  service  of  God.  how  long  they  despise  his 
vows  and  obligations  which  have  been  upon  them  from  the  beginning  ; 
yet  one  would  not  deny  that  there  is  such  a  thing  even  in  the  Christian 
Church  as  men  being  called, — or  to  speak  more  correctly,  since  they 
were  called  long  before, — as  men  obeying  the  calling  and  entering  on 

*  The  author  of  a  modern  Latin  essay,  Dc  Srd  R/sipiscoifid,  anxious  to  rescue 
this  part  of  the  parable  from  the  dangerous  abuse  to  which  it  is  often  subjected, 
observes  that  it  should  have  been  otherwise  constructed,  if  such  a  doctrine  were  to 
be  drawn  from  it :  Oportuisset  dixisse  regnum  coelorum  simile  est  homini  egresso 
alto  mane,  ad  conducendum  operarios  in  vincam  suam.  Invenit  tales  quibus  fecit 
maxima  promissa,  sed  isti  hajc  rojecerunt,  prajferentes  manere  in  foro  ad  ludendum 
et  compotandiim.  Reversus  est  hora,  terticl,  eadem  illis  obtulit,  et  instantius  eos 
rogavit,  sed  absque  fructu  .  .  .  Idem  fecit  hora  sexta.  et  nonS,,  ipsius  autem  obla- 
tiones  et  proniissiones  semper  fuerunt  in  utiles.  Illi  quin  etiam  ipsum  mal6  exce- 
perunt,  ipsiqne  proterv^  dixerunt,  quod  nollent  pro  eo  laborare.  Ipse  nc  sic  quidem 
offensus,  reversus  est,  cum  non  nisi  una  die!  hora  superesset,  eandcinquc  obtulit 
suniniam  (juJim  mane.  Illi  tunc  vidcntes  quod  summam  tantam  luerari  possent 
labore  nionientaneo,  tandem  passi  sunt  hoc  sibi  pcrsuadcri,  spcctantesmaximfe  quod 
dies  ferfe  transactus  foret  ante  suum  in  vineam  adventum.  Augustine  (Scrm.  87,  c. 
6)  has  the  same  line  of  thought :  NunKiuid  cnim  et  illi.  qui  sunt  ad  vineam  con- 
ducti  quando  ad  illos  exibat  paterfamilias,  ut  conduceret  quos  invenit  horA  tertift. 
.  .  .  dixerunt  illi ;  Exspecta,  non  illuc  imus  nisi  hora  sexta.  7  aut  quos  invenit  horA 
sexta  dixerunt ;  Non  imus  nisi  hora  nona  .  .  .  Omnibus  enim  tantumdera  daturus 
est :  quare  nos  amplius  fatigamur"?  Quid  ille  daturus  sit  et  quid  fiicturus  sit,  penes 
ipsum  consilium  est.  Tu  quando  vocaris,  veni.  Compare  Grkhory  N.av.anzi..  Orat. 
40.  c.  20,  against  those  who  used  this  parable  as  an  argument  for  deferring  their 
baptism. 


J48  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

God's  service,  at  the  third,  or  sixth,  or  ninth,  or  even  the  eleventh  hour 
Only  the  case  of  sucli  will  be  parallel  not  to  that  of  any  of  these  labor- 
ers, at  least  in  regard  of  being  able  to  make  the  same  excuse  as  tiey 
did.  but  rather  to  that  of  the  son.  who  being  bidden  to  go  work  in  his 
father's  vineyard,  refused,  but  afterwards  repented  and  went  (Matt.  xxi. 
28) ;  and  such  a  one,  instead  of  excusing  and  clearing  himself  as  re- 
spects the  past,  which  these  laborers  do,  will  on  the  contrary  have  deep 
repentance  in  his  heart,  wliile  he  considers  all  his  neglected  opportunities 
and  the  long-continued  despite  which  he  ha*s  done  to  the  Spirit  of  grace. 
Yet  while  thus  none  can  plead,  "  No  man  hath  hired  us,"  in  a  land  where 
the  Christian  faith  has  long  been  established,  and  the  knowledge  of  it 
brought  home  unto  all  men,  the  parable  is  not  therefore  without  its  ap- 
plication in  such  ; — since  there  will  be  there  also  many  entering  into  the 
Lord's  vineyard  at  diiferent  periods,  even  to  a  late  one,  of  their  lives, 
and  who,  truly  repenting  their  past  unprofitableness,  sind  not  attempt- 
ing to  excuse  it.  may  find  their  work,  be  it  for  a  long  or  a  short  while, 
graciously  accepted  now,  and  may  share  hereafter  in  the  full  rewards  of 
the  kingdom. 

For  in  truth  time  belongs  not  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  Not  "  How 
much  hast  thou  done  ?"  but  "  What  art  thou  now  ?"  will  be  the  great 
question  of*the  last  day.  Of  course  we  must  never  forget  that  all  which 
men  have  done  will  greatly  afi"ect  what  they  are;  yet  still  the  parable  is 
a  protest  against  the  whole  quantitative  appreciation  of  men's  works 
(tlie  Romanist),  as  distinct  from  the  qualitative,  against  all  which  would 
make  tlie  works  the  end  and  man  the  means,  instead  of  the  man  the  end, 
and  the  works  the  means — against  that  scheme  which,  however  uncon- 
sciously, lies  at  the  root  of  so  many  of  the  confusions  in  our  theology  at 
this  day.* 

*  This  mechanical  as  opposed  to  the  dynamic  idea  of  righteousness,  is  carried 
to  the  greatest  perfection  of  all  in  the  Chinese  theology.  Thus  in  that  remarkable 
Livre  t/es  rrcompcnsc.t  ct  drs  peincs,  the  mechanic,  or  to  speak  more  truly,  the  aritli- 
motic  idea  of  righteousness,  comes  out  with  all  possible  distinctness.  For  exam- 
ple, p.  124  :  Pour  d6venir  immortel,  il  faut  avoir  amass^  trois  mille  merites,  et  liuit 
cent  actions  vertueuses.  How  glorious,  on  the  other  hand,  are  Thauler's  words 
upon  the  way  in  which  we  may  have  restored  to  us  '■  the  years  which  the  canker- 
worm  has  eaten"  (Joel  ii.  25) :  Libet  hie  quserere  quo  pacto  deperditum  tem^ms 
unriuam  recuperare  quis  possit,  cdm  nullum  sit  tam  breve  et  velox  temporis  mo- 
mentum, quod  non  totum  cum  omni  virtute  ac  facultate  nostra  Deo  creator!  debea- 
nius.  Sed  hdc  in  parte  consilimn  sanissimum  praestatur.  Avertat  se  quisque  cum 
omnibus  tarn  supremis  q\iCmi  infimis  viribus  suis  ab  omni  loco  et  tempore,  seque  in 
illud  Nunc  feternitatis  recijiiat.  ubi  Deus  essentialiter  in  stabili  quodam  Nunc 
existit.  Ibi  neque  j)ra3teritum  aliquid  est,  neque  futurum.  Ibi  principium  et  finis 
universi  temporis  pr.xsentia  adsunt.  Ibi,  in  Deo  scilicet,  deperdita  omnia  reperiun- 
tur.  Et  (jui  in  coiis!i<'tudii)em  ducunt  soepius  in  Deum  so  immergere  ntque  in  ipso 
commorari,  hi  nin  '  in  fiunt  locupletes,  immo  plura  inveniunt  qu&.m  deperdere 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  149 

"  So  when  even  teas  come,  tlic  lord  of  the  vineyard  saith  unto  his  stew- 
ard., Call  the  laiiorers.,  and  give  them  tlieir  hire,  beginning  from  the  last 
unto  the  first.''''  In  bidding  liis  steward  to  pay  his  laborers  the  same 
evening,  he  acted  consistently  with  the  merciful  command  of  the  law 
which  enjoined  concerning  the  hired  servant,  ••  At  his  day  thou  shalt 
give  him  his  hire,  neither  shall  the  sun  go  down  upon  it,  for  he  is  poor, 
and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it."  (Deut  xxiv.  15.  See  Lev.  xix.  13  ; 
Job.  vii.  2;  Mai.  iii.  5;  Jam.  v.  4;  Tob.  iv.  14.)  Christ  is  the  steward, 
or  the  overseer  rather,  set  over  all  God's  house.  (Heb.  iii.  6 ;  John  v. 
27  ;  Matt.  xi.  27.)  The  whole  economy  of  salvation  has  been  put  into 
his  hands,  and  in  this,  of  course,  the  distribution  of  rewards.  In  obe- 
dience to  the  householder's  commands  the  laborers  are  called  together ; 
the  last  hired,  those  who  came  in  without  any  agreement  made,  receive  a 
full  penny.  Here  is  encouragement  for  those  that  have  delayed  to  en- 
ter on  God's  service  till  late  in  their  lives — not  encouragement  to  delay, 
for  we  every  where  find  in  Scripture  a  blessing  resting  on  early  piety — 
but  encouragement  now  to  work  heartily,  and  with  their  might.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  think  tliat  misgivings  concerning  the  acceptance  of 
their  work  will  make  men  work  the  more  strenuously ;  on  the  contrary, 
nothing  so  effectually  cuts  the  nerves  of  all  exertion ;  but  there  is  that 
in  this  part  of  the  parable  which  may  help  to  remove  such  misgivings 
in  those  who  would  be  most  likely  to  feel  them :  it  encourages  them  to 
labor  in  hope ;  they  too  shall  be  sharers  in  the  full  blessings  of  Christ 
and  of  his  salvation. 

It  may  be  securely  inferred,  that  all  between  the  last  and  the  first 
hired  received  the  penny  as  well ;  though  it  is  the  case  of  the  first  hired 
alone  which  is  brought  forward,  as  that  in  which  the  injustice,  as  the 
others  conceived  it.  appeared  the  most  striking.  To  assume,  as  so  many 
have  done,  Chrysostom,  Maldonatus,  Hammond,  Waterland,  and  of  late 
Olshausen.  that  these  first  hired  had  been  doing  their  work  negligently 
by  comparison,  while  the  last  hired,  such  for  instance  as  a  Paul,  whom 
Origeu  in  this  view,  and  quoting  1  Cor.  xv.  10,  suggests,  had  done  it 
with  their  might,  and  had  in  fact  accomplished  as  much  in  their  hour  as 
the  others  in  their  day,  is  to  assume  that  of  which  there  is  not  the  slight- 
est trace  in  the  narrative.  And  more  tlian  this,  such  an  assumptiou 
effectually  blunts  the  point  of  the  parable,  which  lies  in  this  very  thing, 
that  men  may  do  and  suffer  much.  iTifinitely  more  than  others,  and  yet 
be  rejected,  while  those  others  are  received. — that  the  first  may  be  last 
and  the  last  first.  It  is  not  indeed  strange  that  a  Rationalist  interpreter 
like  Kuinoel  should  thus  explain  it ;  for  in  fact  the  whole  matter  is  thus 

quoant  .  .  .  Donique  ct  nc^lect.i  oniniii  atciut-  (Icpcnlita  in  ipso  quoque  Dominicae 
passionis  preciosissimo  thesauro  roperirc  ac  rccupcraro  licet. 


150  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

taken  out  of  the  spiritual  world,  and  brought  down  to  the  commonest 
region  of  sense ;  since  if  one  man  does  as  much  work  in  one  hour  as 
another  in  twelve,  it  is  only  natural  that  he  should  receive  an  equal  re- 
ward. Every  difficulty  disappears, — except  indeed  this,  how  the  Lord 
should  have  thought  it  worth  his  while  to  utter  a  parable  for  the  justify- 
ing so  very  ordinary  a  transaction ;  or  if  he  did,  should  have  omitted  to 
state  that  very  thing  which  formed  the  justification.  But  in  truth  this 
view  exactly  brings  us  back  to  the  level,  from  which  to  raise  us  the 
parable  was  expressly  spoken — we  have  a  Jewish,*  instead  of  an  evan- 
gelical, parable,  an  affirmation  that  the  reward  is  not  of  grace  but  of 
Jebt, — the  very  untruth  which  it  is  meant  to  gainsay. 

When  those  first  hired  received  the  same  sum  as  the  others  and  no 
more,  "  they  murmured  against  tlte  good  man  of  the  house^  saying^  These 
last  have  wrought  bttt  one  hour^  and  thou  hast  made  them  equal  unto  us, 
tvhich  have  borne  the  burden  and  heat]  of  the  day.'"     These  other,  they 

*  Singularly  enough,  exactlj'  such  a  one  is  quoted  by  Lightfoot  and  others  from 
the  Talmud ;  it  is  concerning  a  celebrated  Rabbi,  who  died  at  a  very  early  age,  and 
is  as  follows :  "To  what  was  R.  Bon  Bar  Chaija  like  1  To  a  king  who  hired  many 
laborers,  among  whom  there  was  one  hired,  who  performed  his  task  extraordinarily 
well.'  What  did  the  king  1  He  took  him  aside  and  walked  with  him  to  and  fro. 
When  even  was  come,  those  laborers  came,  that  they  might  receive  their  hire,  and 
he  gave  him  a  complete  hire  with  the  rest.  And  the  laborers  murmured,  say- 
ing, '  We  have  labored  hard  all  the  day,  and  this  man  only  two  hours,  yet  he  hath 
received  as  much  wages  as  we.'  The  king  said  to  them.  '  He  hath  labored  more  in 
those  two  hours,  than  you  in  the  whole  day.'  So  R.  Bou  plied  the  law  moi-e  in 
eight  and  twenty  years  than  another  in  a  hundred  years."  This  parable  appears 
in  the  SpicUcgium  of  L.  Capellus.  p.  28,  in  an  altered  shape. — Von  Hammer  {Ftind- 
gruben  d.  Orients.,  v.  1,  p.  157)  has  a  curious  extract  from  the  Swra,  or  collection  of 
Mahomet's  traditional  sayings,  which  looks  like  a  distorted  image  of  our  parable. 
The  Jew.  the  Christian,  the  Mahommedan  are  likened  to  three  different  bands  of 
laborers,  hired  at  ditlerent  periods  of  the  day,  at  morning,  at  mid-day,  and  afternoon. 
The  latest  hired  received  in  the  evening  twice  as  much  as  the  others.  It  ends  thus : 
"  The  Jews  and  Christians  will  complain  and  say,  '  Lord,  thou  hast  given  two  carets 
to  these  and  only  one  to  us.'  But  the  Lord  will  say,  '  Have  I  wronged  you  in  your 
reward  V  They  answer,  '•  No.'  '  Then  learn  that  the  other  is  an  overflowing  of  my 
grace.'  "  See  the  same  with  immaterial  differences  in  Gerock's  Christol.  d.  Koran, 
p.  141  ;  and  Mohler  {Verm.  SchrifL,  v.  1,  p.  355)  mentions  that  when  seeking  for 
proi)hetic  intimations  of  their  faith  in  our  Scriptures,  they  make  distinct  reference 
to  this  parable,  and  its  successive  bands  of  laborers. — Mr.  Greswell  quotes  a  re- 
markable passage  from  Josephus  {AiM.  Jiid.,  20.  9.  7),  which  proves  that  such  a 
dealing  as  that  of  the  householder,  was  not  without  a  very  remarkable  precedent 
in  those  very  days.  The  Jewish  historian  expressly  says,  that  Ananus  (the  Annas 
of  the  New  Testament)  paid  the  workmen  who  were  employed  in  the  rebuilding  or 
beautifying  of  the  temple  a  whole  day's  pay,  even  though  they  should  have  labored  but 
a  single  hour. 

t  The  Kauffoiv,  which  word  is  used  in  the  LXX.  for  the  dry  burning  east  wind 
80  fatal  to  all  vegetable  hfe  :  "the   wind  from  the  wilderness"  (Hos.  xiii.  15),  of 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  151 

would  say,  have  been  laboring  not  merely  a  far  shorter  time,  but  when 
they  entered  on  their  tusks  it  was  already  the  cool  of  the  evening,  when 
toil  is  no  longer  oppressive,  while  we  have  borne  the  scorching  heat  of 
the  middle  noon.  But  here  the  perplexing  dilemma  meets  us,  Either 
these  are  of  the  number  of  God's  faithful  people. — how  then  can  they 
murmur  against  him,  and  grudge  against  their  fellow-servants  ?  or  they 
are  not  of  that  number, — what  then  can  we  understand  of  their  having 
labored  the  whole  day  through  in  his  vineyard,  and  actually  carrying 
away  at  last  the  i^enny,  the  reward  of  eternal  life  ? — for  it  is  a  very  un- 
natural way  of  escaping  the  difficulty,  to  understand  •'  Take  that  tvhich 
is  tltine'^  as  meaning, — Take  the  damnation  which  belongs  to  thee,  and 
is  the  just  punishment  of  thy  pride  and  discontent.  Theophylact  and 
other i  strive  to  mitigate  as  much  as  possible  the  guilt  of  their  murmur- 
ing, and  make  it  nothing  more  than  the  expression  of  surprise  and  ad. 
miration*  which  will  escape  some,  at  the  unexpected  position  which 
others,  of  perhaps  small  account  here,  will  occupy  in  the  future  king- 
dom of  glory.f  But  the  expression  of  their  discontent  is  too  strong,  and 
the  rebuke  which  it  calls  out  too  severe,  to  allow  of  any  such  explaining 
of  their  dissatisfaction.  Better  to  say  that  there  is  no  analogy  to  be 
found  for  this  murmuring  in  the  future  world  of  glory — and  only  where 
there  is  a  great  admixture  of  the  old  man  in  the  present  world  of  grace. 
There  is  here  rather  a  teaching  by  contraries ;  it  is  saying.  Since  you 
cannot  conceive  such  a  spirit  as  that  here  held  up  before  you,  and  which 
you  feel  to  be  so  sinful  and  hateful,  finding  place  in  the  perfected  king- 
dom of  God,  check  betimes  its  beginnings — check  all  inclinations  to  look 
grudgingly  at  your  brethren  who,  having  in  times  past  grievously  de- 
parted from  God,  have  now  found  a  place  beside  yourselves  in  his  king- 
dom, and  are  sharers  in  the  same  spiritual  privileges.^  or  to  look  down 

which  Jerome  says  {Com.  in  Os..  1.  3,  c.  11) :  Kava-aiva,  i.  e.  ariditatem,  sivo  ventum 
urcntem.  qui  contrarius  floribus  est,  etgermiiiaiitia  cuiicta  disperdit.  It  has  much 
in  common  with,  tliough  it  has  not  altogetlier  so  malignant  a  character  as,  the  de- 
sert wind  Sam  or  Saniiel,  to  whicli  modern  travellers  attribute  yet  more  destruc- 
tive elfects,  speaking  of  it  as  at  times  fatal  to  the  life  of  man ;  and  whose  effects 
Venenia  {Cnmm.  in  Ps.  xci.  6)  thus  describes:  Penetrat  ventus,  venenatis  i)articu- 
lis  mixtus.  jcstu  suo  venenato  in  viscera,  et  pnesentissinuuu  ac  dolorificuin  adfert 
exitium.  Subito  corpora  fiedfe  alliciuntur  ac  putrescunt.  See  also  Gkbskk,  Der 
Brirf  (les  Jaknbus,  p.  41. 

*  Bellarmine :  Admirationem  potius  quJimquerimoniam  signilicarc  videtur. 

t  The  explanation  given  by  Gregory  the  Great  {Hum.  1!),  in  Evang.)  is  of  the 
same  kind  though  with  iiarticular  reference  to  the  Saints  and  Patriarchs  of  the 
Old  Testament :  Quia  antitpii  patres  usque  ad  adventnm  Domini  dueti  ad  regnum 
non  sunt.  .  .  .  hoe  ipsum  mnrmnrilssc  est;  quod  ct  rectfe  i)ro  percipiendo  regno  vix- 
erunt.  ft  tamen  diu  ad  percii)iendum  regnum  dilati  suut.  Origen  in  the  same  spirit 
quotes  Ileb.  xi.  39,  40. 

%  There  are  many  and  interesting  points  of  comparison,  as  Jerome  observes,  be- 


152  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

upon  and  despise  those  who  occupy  a  less  important  field  of  labor,  who 
are  called  in  the  providence  of  Grod  to  endure  and  suffer  less  than  your- 
selves ;  check  all  inclinations  to  pride  yourselves  on  your  own  doings, 
as  though  they  gave  you  a  claim  of  right  upon  God,  instead  of  accept- 
ing all  of  the  free  mercy  and  undeserved  bounty  of  God,  and  confessing 
that  you  as  well  as  others  must  be  saved  entirely  by  grace. 

AVith  regard  to  the  muvmurers  actually  receiving  their  penny,  it  is 
ingeniously  remarked  by  a  Romish  expositor,  that  the  denarius  or  penny 
was  of  different  kinds;  there  was  the  double,  the  treble,  the  fourfold; 
that  of  brass  or  rather  copper,  of  silver,  and  of  gold.  The  Jew  (for  he 
applies  the  parable  to  Jew  and  Gentile)  received  what  was  his,  his 
penny  of  the  meaner  metal,  his  earthly  reward,  and  with  that  went  his 
way  ;  but  tlie  Gentile  the  golden  penny,  the  spiritual  reward,  grace  and 
glory,  admission  into  the  presence  of  God.  Ingenious  as  this  notion  is, 
of  course  no  one  will  for  an  instant  accept  it  as  a  fair  explanation  of  the 
difficulty,  and  yet  it  may  suggest  valuable  considerations.  The  penny 
is  very  different  to  the  different  receivers — though  objectively  the  same, 
subjectively  is  very  different ;  it  is  in  fact  to  every  one  exactly  what  he 
will  make  it.*  What  the  Lord  said  to  Abraham,  he  says  unto  all,  "  I 
am  th}'  exceeding  great  reward,"  and  he  has  no  other  reward  to  impart 
to  any  save  only  this,  namely  himself     To  see  him  as  he  is,  this  is  the 


tween  this  parable  and  tliat  of  the  Prodig-al  Son ;  and  chiefly  between  the  murmur- 
ing laborers  in  this,  and  the  elder  brother  in  that.  They  had  borne  the  burden 
and  heat  of  the  day — he  had  served  his  father  these  many  years :  they  grudged  to 
see  the  laborers  of  the  eleventh  hour  made  equal  with  themselves — he  to  see  the 
Prodigal  received  into  the  full  blessings  of  his  father's  house  ;  the  lord  of  the  vine- 
yard remonstrates  with  them  for  their  narrow-heartedness,  and  in  like  manner  the 
father  with  him. 

*  Thus  Aquinas,  in  answer  to  the  question  whether  there  will  be  degrees  of 
glory  in  the  future  world,  replies  that  in  one  sense  there  will,  in  another  there  will 
not ;  for,  he  adds,  Contingit  aliquera  perfectius  frui  Deo  qua.m  alium  ex  eo  quod 
est  melius  dispositus  vel  ordinatus  ad  ejus  fruitionem ; — and  again;  Virtus  erit 
quasi  materialis  dispositio  ad  mensuram  grfiitias  et  glorias  suscipiendae.  This  is  one 
vision  of  God  ;  but  there  are  very  ditferent  capacities  for  enjoying  that  vision,  as  is 
profoundly  expressed  in  Dante's  Poradlso,  by  the  circles  concentric,  but  ever  grow- 
ing smaller  and  thus  nearer  to  the  centre  of  light  and  life.  Augustine  {Enarr.  in 
Ps.  Ixxii.  1)  carries  yet  further  the  view  of  the  one  vision  of  God  for  all:  he  com- 
pares it  to  the  light  which  gladdens  the  healthy  ej^e  but  torments  the  diseased  (non 
mutatis  sed  mutatum).  It  was  also  a  favorite  notion  with  the  mj'stics  that  God 
would  not  ])nt  forth  a  twofold  power  to  punish  and  reward,  but  the  same  power 
acting  differently  on  dilierent  natures. — as,  to  use  their  own  illustration,  the  same 
heat  hardens  the  clay  and  softens  the  mmx.  The  Zend-Avesta  supplies  a  parallel : 
All.  it  is  tliere  said,  in  the  world  to  come,  will  have  to  pass  through  the  same 
stream  ;  but  this  stream  will  be  as  warm  niilkto  the  righteous,  while  to  the  wicked 
it  will  he  as  molten  brass. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  153 

reward  which  he  has  for  all  iiis  people,  the  penny  unto  all ;  but  they 
whom  these  murmuring  laborers  represent,  had  been  laboring  for 
something  else  besides  the  knowledge  and  enjoyment  of  God,  with  an 
eye  to  some  other  reward,  to  something  on  account  of  which  tliey  could 
glory  in  themselves  and  glory  over  others.  It  was  not  merely  to  have 
much  whicii  they  desire,  but  to  have  more  than  others, — not  to  grow 
together  with  the  whole  body  of  Christ,  but  to  get  before  and  beyond 
their  brethren* — and  the  penny  then,  because  it  was  common  to  all, 
did  not  seem  enough — while  in  fact  it  was  to  each  what  he  would 
make  it.  For  if  the  vision  of  God  constitute  the  blessedness  of  the 
future  world,  then  they  whose  spiritual  eye  is  most  enlightened,  will 
drink  in  most  of  his  glory;  then,  since  only  like  can  know  like,  all  ad- 
vances which  are  here  made  in  humility,  in  holiness,  in  love,  are  a  pol- 
ishing of  the  mirror  that  it  may  reflect  more  distinctly  the  divine  image, 
a  purging  of  the  eye  that  it  may  see  more  clearly  the  divine  glory,  an 
enlarging  of  the  vessel  that  it  may  receive  more  amply  of  the  divine 
fulness :  and,  on  the  contrary,  all  pride,  all  self-righteousness,  all  sin  of 
every  kind,  whether  it  stop  short  with  impairing,  or  end  by  altogether 
destroying,  the  capacities  for  receiving  from  God,  is  in  its  degree  a 
staining  of  the  mirror,  a  darkening  of  the  eye,  a  narrowing  of  the  ves- 
sel.f  In  the  present  ease,  where  pride  and  envy  and  self-esteem  had 
found  place,  darkening  the  eye  of  tlie  heart,  as  a  consequence  the  re- 
ward seemed  no  reward, — it  did  not  appear  enough  \\  instead  of  be- 
ing exactly  what  each  was  willing,  or  rather  had  prepared  himself  to 
make  it. 

'"But  lui  answered  one  of  thcm^^^  probably  him  who  was  loudest  and 
foremost  in  the  expression  of  his  discontent,  "  and  said.  Fric/ul,\j  I  do 

*  The  true  feeling  is  expressed  by  Augustine :  Ha;rcditas  in  quH  cohajredos 
Christi  sunms,  non  minuitur  multitiuline  filiorum,  nee  fit  angustius  numerositato 
cohiXirediuu.  Sed  tanta  est  multis  quanta  paiicis,  tanta  singulis  quanta  omnibus; 
and  in  a  sublime  passage,  De  Lib.  ArbiL,  1.  2,  c.  14,  where  of  Truth,  the  heavenly 
bride,  he  e.xclairas  :  Omnes  amatoiT's  suos  nullo  modo  sibi  invidos  recipit.  et  omni- 
bus eonimunis  est  et  singulis  casta  est :  and  by  Gregory,  who  says :  Qui  faeibus 
invidia;  carere  desiderat,  illam  ctu-itatem  ai)petat,  (piam  numerus  possidentiuni  nou 
angustat.   The  same  is  beautifully  expressed  by  Dante,  Pwrgat.  15,  beginning : — 

Com'  esser  puote  ch'un  ben  dii5tributo 
In  pill  posseditor,  faccia  piii  ricclii 
Di  se,  che  se  da  pochi  e  possediitol 

t  BeJlarniinc  {Dc  ater.  Fclic.  Sajict.,  1.  5):  Denarius  vitam  asternam  significat: 
sed  qui'madmodum  idem  sol  clarius  conspicitur  ab  aquilA  quftm  ab  aliis  avibus,  et 
idem  ignis  niagis  calefacit  proximos  qnini  remotos,  sic  in  eadem  jcternil  vita,  elarius 
videbit.  et  jncundius  gaudebit  unus  quiim  alius. 

:):  As  the  heathen  moralist  had  said  :  NuUi  ad  aliena  respicienti.  sua  placent; — 
and  again  :  Non  potest  (luiscpiam  et  in\idere  et  gratias  agere. 

^  'EraTpe :  in  the  Vulgat«,  Amice :  but  Augustine  {Scrm.  87,  c.  3,)  Sodalis, 


154  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  YINETARD. 

tJiee  110  wrong ;  didst  thou  not  agree  with  tnefor  a petmy  ?"  ^'■Friend " 
is  commonly  a  word  of  address,  as  it  would  be  among  ourselves,  from  a 
superior  to  an  inferior,  and  in  Scripture  is  a  word  of  an  evil  omen, 
seeing  that  besides  the  present  passage,  it  is  the  compellation  used  to  the 
guest  that  had  not  a  wedding  garment  (Matt,  xxi.),  and  to  Judas  when 
he  came  to  betray  his  Master. — '■^  I  do  tliee  iio  torong  ;"  he  justifies  his 
manner  of  dealing  with  them,  as  well  as  his  sovereign  right  in  his  own 
things.  They  had  put  their  claim  on  the  footing  of  right,  and  on  that 
footing  they  are  answered ; — "  Take  that  thine  is,  and  go  thy  ivay ;" 
and  again,  '•'■Is  thine  eye*  evil  because  lam  good?  so  long  as  I  am  just 
to  you,  may  I  not  be  goodf  and  liberal  to  them  V  The  solution  of  the 
difficulty  that  these  complainers  should  get  their  reward  and  carry  it 
away  with  them,  has  been  already  suggested, — namely  that,  according  to 
the  human  relations,  on  which  the  parable  is  founded,  and  to  which  it 
must  adapt  itself,  it  would  not  have  been  consistent  with  equity  to  have 
made  them  forfeit  their  own  hire,  notwithstanding  the  bad  feeling  which 
they  displayed.  Yet  we  may  say  their  reward  vanished  in  their  hands, 
and  the  sentences  which  follow  sufficiently  indicate,  that  with  Grod  an 
absolute  forfeiture  might  follow,  nay  must  necessarily  follow,  where  this 
grudging,  unloving,  proud  spirit  has  come  to  its  full  head ;  for  it  is  said 
immediately  after,  "»S'o  tlie  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last?^ 

Many  expositors  have  been  sorely  troubled  how  to  bring  these  words 
into  agreement  with  the  parable ;  for  in  it  first  and  last  seem  all  put 
upon  the  same  footing,  while  here,  in  these  words,  a  complete  change  of 
place  is  asserted ; — those  who  seemed  highest,  it  is  declared  shall  be 
placed  at  the  lowest,  and  the  lowest  highest ;  compare  too  Luke  xiii.  30, 
where  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  total  rejection  of  the  first,  the  un- 
believing Jews,  accompanied  with  the  receiving  of  the  last,  the  Gentiles, 
into  covenant,  is  declared.  Origen,  whom  Maldonatus  follows,  finds  an 
explanation  of  the  difficulty  in  the  fact  that  the  last  hired  are  the  first 
in  order  of  payment ;    but  this  is   so  trifling  an  advantage,  that  the 

which  is  better.  Oiu-  "  fellow,"  as  now  used,  would  contain  too  much  of  contempt 
in  it.  though  else  it  would  give  the  original  with  the  greatest  accuracy. 

*  Envy  is  ever  spoken  of  as  finding  its  expression  from  the  eye,  Deut.  xv.  9 ; 
1  Sam.  xvil.  9  (••  Saul  eyed  David  ") ;  Prov.  xxiii.  6  ;  xxviii.  22  ;  Tob.  iv.  7 ;  Sirac 
xiv.  10;  xxxi.  13  ;  Mark  vii.  22.  There  lies  in  the  expression  the  belief,  one  of  the 
widest  spread  in  the  world,  of  the  eye  being  able  to  put  forth  positive  powers  of 
mischief  Thus  in  Greek  the  o$&aA./xds  ^ivKavos  and  ^a.(TKaXviiv=^<^hovfiv ;  in  Italian, 
the  mal-occhio;  in  French,  the  mauvais-oeil.  Persius :  Urentcs  oculos.  See 
Beckrr's  Charikles,  v.  2,  p.  291.  We  have  on  the  other  hand  the  aya^hi  6<l>Sra\/j.6s, 
the  ungrudging  eye.     (Sirac  xxxii.  10  :  LXX.) 

t  The  same  opposition  between  aya^Ss  and  SUaws  finds  place,  Rom.  v.  7,  which 
indeed  is  only  to  be  explained  by  keeping  fast  hold  of  the  opposition  between  the 
words. 


THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.  155 

explanation  must  be  rejected  as  quite  unsatisfactory.  The  circumstance 
of  the  last  hired  being  first  paid  is  evidently  introduced  merely  for  the 
convenience  of  the  narration ;  if  the  first  hired  had  been  first  paid,  and, 
as  was  natural,  had  then  gone  their  way,  they  would  not  hav.e  been 
present  to  see  that  the  others  had  obtained  the  same  remuneration  as 
themselves,  and  so  would  have  had  no  opportunity  of  expressing  their 
discontent.  Neander*  finds  the  difl&culty  of  reconciling  the  parable  with 
the  words  which  introduce  and  finish  it  so  great,  that  he  proposes  a 
desperate  remedy,  and  one  under  the  frequent  application  of  which  we 
should  lose  all  confidence  in  the  trustworthiness,  not  to  speak  of  the 
inspiration,  of  the  Gospel  narration.  He  thinks  the  sentences  and  the 
parable  to  have  been  spoken  on  difi'erent  occasions,  and  only  by  accident 
to  have  been  here  brought  into  connection ;  and  asserts  that  one  must 
wholly  pervert  this  so  weighty  parable  to  bring  it  through  forced  artifices 
into  harmony  with  words  which  are  alien  to  it.  But  what  has  been 
observed  above  mjiy  furnish  a  sufficient  answer ;  if  that  be  correct,  the 
saying  is  not  merely  in  its  place  here,  but  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
complete  the  moral,  to  express  that  which  the  parable  did  not,  and 
according  to  the  order  of  human  aifairs,  could  not  express,  namely,  the 
entre  forfeiture  which  would  follow  on  the  indulgence  of  such  a  temper, 
as  that  displayed  by  the  murmurers  and  complainers. 

There  is  more  difficulty  with  the  other  words,  '■'•Many  he  called  hut 
few  chosen."^  They  are  not  difficult  in  themselves,  but  difficult  on 
account  of  the  position  which  they  occupy :  the  connection  is  easy  and 
the  application  obvious,  when  they  occur  as  the  moral  of  the  Marriage 
of  the  King's  Son,  Matt.  xxii.  14,  but  here  they  have  much  perplexed 
interpreters,  such  at  least,  as  will  not  admit  the  entire  rejection  from 
the  heavenly  kingdom  of  those  represented  by  the  murmuring  laborers. 
Some  explain  them.  Many  are  called,  but  few  have  the  peculiar  favor 
shown  to  them,  that  though  their  labor  is  so  much  less,  their  reward 
should  be  equal:  thus  Olshausen,  who  makes  the  '•'•  callecV  and  the 
"  chose)i "  alike  partakers  of  final  salvation,  but  that  by  these  terms  are 
signified  higher  and  lower  standings  of  men  in  the  kingdom  of  God. J: 
These  last  hired  had,  in  his  view,  labored  more  abundantly,  but  this 
their  more  abundant  labor  was  to  be  referred  to  a  divine  election,  so  that 

*  Lrbcn  Jcsu,  p.  196,  note. 

t  It  i.s  not  often  that  there  is  so  felicitous  an  equivalent  proverb  in  another  lan- 
guage .T.S  tliat  wliich  the  Greek  supplie.s  here ;  and  which  Clement  of  Alexandria 
has  more  tlian  once  adduced  on  the  score  of  its  ajjtnoss  as  a  parallel: 
IloWo^  TOt  vapbriKO<p6poi,  vavpoi  S/  T€  ^aKxot- 

X  Thus  Wolf  also  {Curcc,  in  loe.) :  KArjroi/s  et  (KKfKrous  hie  non  tanquam  specie 
sihi  opi)ositos  considerandos  esse,  sed  tanquam  oppositos  gradu  felicitatis  atque 
dignitatis. 


156  THE  LABORERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD. 

the  name  "  choaen  "  or  elect  becomes  them  well,  to  whom  such  especial 
grace  was  given.  But  this  supposition  of  larger  labor  upon  their  part 
mars,  as  has  been  already  noted,  the  whole  parable,  and  is  by  no  means 
to  be  admitted.  Others  have  supposed  that. the  '■•called''''  may  refer  to 
some  not  expressly  mentioned  in  the  parable,  who  had  refused  altogether 
to  work  in  the  vineyard,  in  comparison  with  whom  the  "  dioseii^''  those 
who  at  any  hour  had  accepted  the  invitation,  were  so  few,  that  the  Lord 
could  not  bear  that  any  of  these  should  be  shut  out  from  his  full  reward. 
But  the  easiest  interpretation  seems  to  be, — Many  are  called  to  work  in 
God's  vineyard,  but  few  retain  that  temper  of  spirit,  that  humility,  that 
entire  submission  to  the  righteousness  of  God,  that  utter  denial  of  any 
claim  as  of  right  on  their  own  part,  which  will  allow  them  in  the  end  to 
be  partakers  of  his  reward.* 

*  The  term,  reward,  as  applied  to  the  felicity  which  God  will  impart  to  his  peo- 
ple, sometimes  offends,  while  it  seems  to  bring  us  back  to  a  legal  standing  point,  and 
to  imply  a  claim  as  of  right,  not  merely  of  grace,  upon  man's  part ;  but  since  it  is  a 
scriptural  term  (Matt.  v.  12,  vi.  1 ;  Luke  vi.  35 ;  2  John  8;  Rev.  xxii.  12).  there  is 
no  reason  why  we  should  shrink  from  using  it,  even  as  we  find  our  Church  has  not 
shrunk  from  its  use.  Thus  in  one  of  our  Collects  we  pray  "  that  we  plenteously 
bringing  forth  the  fruit  of  good  works  may  of  thee  be  plenteously  rewarded" — and 
in  the  Baptismal  Service,  "  everlastingly  rewarded."  Yet  at  the  same  time  we 
should  clearly  understand  what  we  mean  by  it.  Aquinas  says  :  Potest  homo  apud 
Deiun  aliquid  mereri  non  quidem  secundum  absolutam  justitiae  rationem,  sed  se- 
cundiira  divinae  ordinationis  quandam  prgesuppositionem ;  and  this  is  a  satisfactory 
distinction  ;  the  reward  has  relation  to  the  work,  but  this  is,  as  the  earh^  protesters 
against  the  papal  doctrine  of  merits  expressed  it,  according  to  a  justitia  promissionis 
divine,  not  a  justitia  retributionis.  There  is  nothing  of  a  meritum  condignum. 
though  Bellarmine  sought  to  press  this  parable  into  service,  in  support  of  such. 
(See  Gerhard's  Loc.  Theoll.,  loc.  18,  c.  8,  ^  14.)  When  it  is  said,  "  God  is  not  un- 
righteous to  forget  your  work  and  labor  of  love,"  it  is  only  saying  in  other  words, 
he  is  fiiithful  (ouk  &5iKos=TTi(TThs).  Compare  1  John  i.  9  ;  1  Cor.  x.  13;  1  Pet.  iv. 
19.  By  free  promise  he  makes  himself  a  debtor :  Augustine  {Serm.  110,  c.  4) : 
Non  debendo  sed  promittendo  debitorem  se  Dens  fecit.  In  the  reward  there  is  a 
certain  retrospect  to  the  work  done,  but  no  proportion  between  them,  excejrt  such 
as  may  have  been  established  by  the  free  appointment  of  the  Giver,  and  the  only 
claim  wliich  it  justifies  is  upon  his  promise.  "  He  is  faithful  that  promised" — this 
and  not  any  other  thing  must  remain  always  the  ground  of  all  expectations  and 
hopes  :  and  what  these  expectations  are  to  be,  and  what  they  are  not  to  be,  it  is 
the  main  jnirpose  of  this  parable  to  declare.  Bernard  declares  excellently  the  spirit 
in  which  man  ought  to  work,  and  in  which  God  will  accept  the  work,  when  he  says : 
Vera  caritas  raercenaria  non  est.  quamvis  merces  earn  sequatur. 


X. 

THE   TWO    SONS. 

Matthew  xxi.  28-32. 

Our  Lord  had  put  back  with  another  question  the  question  with  f^hich 
his  adversaries  had  hoped  either  to  silence  him,  if  he  should  decline  to 
answer,  or  to  obtain  matter  of  accusation  against  him.  if  he  should  give 
the  answer  which  they  expected ;  and  now  he  becomes  himself  the 
assailing  party,  and  commences  that  series  of  parables,  in  which,  as  in  a 
glass  lield  up  before  them,  they  might  see  themselves,  the  impurity  of 
their  hearts,  their  neglect  of  the  charge  laid  upon  them,  their  contempt 
of  the  privileges  afforded  them,  the  aggravated  guilt  of  that  outrage 
against  himself  which  they  were  already  meditating  in  their  hearts. 
Yet  even  these,  wearing  as  they  do  so  severe  and  threatening  an  aspect, 
are  not  words  of  defiance,  but  of  earnest,  tenderest  love, — spoken,  if  it 
were  yet  possible  to  turn  them  from  their  purpose,  to  save  them  from 
the  fearful  sin  they  were  about  to  commit,  to  win  tJiem  also  for  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  first,  that  of  the  Two  Sons,  goes  not  so  deeply 
into  tlie  jnatter  as  the  two  that  follow,  and  is  rather  retrospective,  while 
those  other  are  prophetic  also. 

'•  Biit  what,  think  ye  ? — A  certain  man  had  tivo  sons."  Here,  as  at 
Luke  XV.  11,  are  described,  under  the  image  of  two  sons  of  one  father, 
two  great  moral  divisions  of  men.  under  one  or  other  of  which  might 
be  ranged  almost  all  with  whom  our  blessed  Lord  in  his  teaching  and 
preaching  came  in  contact.  Of  one  of  these  classes  the  Pharisees  were 
specinions  and  representatives,— though  this  class  as  well  as  the  other 
will  exist  at  all  times.  In  tliis  are  included  all  who  have  sought  a  right- 
eousness through  the  law,  and  by  the  help  of  it  have  been  kept  in  the 
main  from  open  outbreakings  of  evil  In  the  second  class,  of  which  the 
publicans  and  harlots  stand  as  representatives,  are  contained  all  who 


158  THE  TWO  SONS. 

have  thrown  off  the  yoke,  openly  and  boldly  transgressed  the  laws  of 
God.  done  evil  with  both  hands  earnestly.  Now  the  condition  of  those 
first  is  of  course  far  preferable  ;  that  righteousness  of  the  law  better  than 
this  open  unrighteousness; — provided  always  that  it  is  ready  to  give 
place  to  the  righteousness  of  faith  when  that  appears, — provided  that  it 
knows  and  feels  its  own  incompleteness  ;  and  this  will  always  be  the  case, 
where  the  attempt  to  keep  the  law  has  been  truly  and  honestly  made; 
the  law  will  then  have  done  its  work,  and  have  proved  a  schoolmaster  to 
Christ.  But  if  this  righteousness  is  satisfied  with  itself, — and  this  will 
be.  where  evasions  have  been  sought  out  to  escape  the  strictness  of  the  re- 
quirements of  the  law;  if,  cold  and  loveless  and  proud,  it  imagines  that  it 
wants  nothing,  and  so  refuses  to  submit  itself  to  the  righteousness  of 
faith,  then  far  better  that  the  sinner  should  have  had  his  eyes  opened  to 
perceive  his  misery  and  guilt,  even  though  it  had  been  by  means  of 
manifest  and  grievous  transgressions,  than  that  he  should  remain  in  this 
ignorance  of  his  true  state,  of  that  which  is  lacking  to  him  still ;  just  as 
it  would  be  better  that  disease,  if  in  the  frame^  should  take  a  decided 
shape,  so  that  it  might  be  felt  and  acknowledged  to  be  disease,  and  then 
met  and  overcome, — than  that  it  should  be  secretly  lurking  in,  and  per- 
vading, the  whole  system,  and  because  secretly,  its  very  existence  denied 
by  him  whose  life  it  was  threatening.  From  this  point  of  view  St.  Paul 
speaks,  Rom.  vii.  7-9,  and  the  same  lesson  is  taught  us  in  all  Scripture 
— that  there  is  no  such  fault  as  counting  we  have  no  fault.  It  is  taught 
us  in  the  bearing  of  the  elder  son  towards  his  father  and  returning 
brother  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  ;  and  again,  in  the  conduct  of 
the  Pharisee  who  had  invited  Jesus  to  his  house,  in  his  demeanor  to  him 
and  to  the  woman  "  which  was  a  sinner  ;"  and  in  his  who  went  up  into 
the  temple  to  pray.    (Luke  xviii.  10.     Compare  v.  29-32.) 

"  Ami  he  came  to  the  first  and  said^  Son,  go  loork  to-day  in  my  vine- 
yard^'' This  command  was  the  general  summons  made  both  by  the  nat- 
ural law  in  the  conscience,  and  also  by  the  revealed  law  which  Moses 
gave,  for  men  to  bring  forth  fruit  unto  Grod.  This  call  the  publicans 
and  harlots,  and  all  open  sinners,  manifestly  neglected  and  despised. 
The  son  first  bidden  to  go  to  work,  "  ansivered  and  said^  I  will  oiot^* 
The  rudeness  of  the  answer,  the  total  absence  of  any  attempt  to  excuse 
his  disobedience,  are  both  characteristic ;  he  does  not  take  the  trouble  to 
say,  like  those  invited  guests,  "  I  pray  thee  have  me  excused  ;"  but  flat- 
ly refuses  to  go ;  he  is  in  short  the  representative  of  careless,  reckless 
sinners. — Aiid  he  came  to  tJie  second  and  said  likewise,  and  he  answered 
and  said,  I  go,  sir."t     The  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  as  professing  to  be 

*  Gerhard :  Vita  peccatorura  nihil  aliud  est,  qu&.m  realis  quidam  clamor  et  pro- 
fessio,  Nolumus  facere  Dei  voluntatem. 

t  '£701,  KvpK.    The  readings  here  are  very  various,  vm  KvpLe,  virdyco  Kvpie,  and 


THE  TWO  SONS.  159 

zealous  for  the  law,  set  themselves  in  the  way  as  though  they  would  ful- 
fil the  commands ;  this  their  profession  was  like  the  second  son's  prom- 
ised obedience.  But,  as  the  Lord  on  a  later  occasion  lays  to  their 
charge,  that  they  said  and  did  not  (Matt,  xxiii.  2),  even  as  he  quotes  the 
prophet  Isaiah  as  having  long  before  described  them  truly  {3Iatt.  xv.  8), 
"  This  people  draweth  nigh  unto  me  with  their  mouth,  and  honoreth  me 
with  their  lips,  but  their  heart  is  far  from  me,"  so  was  it  here.  When 
the  marked  time  arrived,  when  it  was  needful  to  take  decisively  one 
side  or  the  other,  when  the  Baptist  came  unto  them  "  in  tJic  loay  of 
rigliteousncsa."  and  summoned  to  earnest  repentance,  to  a  revival  of 
God's  work  in  the  hearts  of  tlie  entire  people,  then  many  of  those  hitlier- 
to  openly  profane  wore  baptized,  confessing  their  sins ;  and  like  the  son 
who  at  first  contumaciously  refused  obedience  to  his  father's  bidding, 
'"'•repented  and  went :"  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  real  unrighteousness 
of  the  Pharisees,  before  concealed  under  show  of  zeal  for  the  law,  was 
evidently  declared:  professing  willingness  to  go.  they  yet  ^^iventnot." 
Wlien  the  Lord  demands  of  his  adversaries,  "  W/iethcr  of  the  tivain 
did  the  tuill  of  hh  father  V  they  cannot  profess  inability  to  solve  this 
question,  as  they  had  done  that  other  (ver.  27) ;  they  are  obliged  now 
to  give  a  reply,  though  that  reply  condemned  themselves.  "  Tlicy  say 
unto  lam.  Tlie  first  :^^ — not,  of  course,  that  he  did  it  absolutely  well, 
but  by  comparison  with  the  other.  Whereupon  the  Lord  immediately 
makes  the  application^of  the  words  which  have  been  reluctantly  wrung 
from  them,  ''  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  publicans  and  harlots  go 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  you."  When  he  says,  they  "go  before 
you,"  or  take  the  lead  of  you,  he  would  indicate  that  the  door  of  hope 
was  not  yet  shut  upon  them,  that  they  were  not  yet  irreversibly 
excluded  from  that  kingdom* — the  others  indeed  had  preceded  them, 
but  they  might  still  follow,  if  they  would.  Some  interpreters  lay  an 
emphasis  on  the  words,  "  in  the  way  of  righteousness,^^  as  though  they 
are  brought  in  to  aggravate  the  sin  of  the  Pharisees — as  though  Christ 
would  say,  "  The  Baptist  came,  a  pattern  of  that  very  righteousness  of 
the  law,  in  wliich  you  profess  to  exercise  yourselves.  He  did  not  come, 
calling  to  the  new  life  of  the  Gospel,  of  which  I  am  the  pattern,  and 

many  more,  -which  however  may  be  easily  traced  up  to  tran.scribers  wanting  to 
amend  a  phrase  whicli  they  did  not  quite  miderstand,  and  which  seemed  iiicora- 
plete  : — iropfvofxai  anepxaixai,  OX  some  such  word  must  be  supplied.  See  1  Sam.  iii. 
4,6;  Gen.  xxii.  1.  LXX. 

*  But  he  does  not  affirm  more,  so  that  there  need  be  no  difficulty  here  on  ac- 
count of  the  Pharisees,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  never  having  followed  ;  the 
word  {irpod.yovffiv)  does  not  imply  that  they  will  follow,  it  merely  declares  that  the 
others  have  entered  first,  leaving  it  open  to  them  to  follow  or  not.  Compare  the 
still  stronger  use  of  trpuniroKOi  (Matt.  i.  25),  where  there  were  none  to  come  after. 


160  THE  TWO  SONS. 

which  you  might  have  misunderstood ;  he  did  not  come,  seeking  to  put 
new  wine  into  tlie  old  bottles ;  but  he  came,  himself  fulfilling  that  very 
idea  of  rigliteousness  which  you  pretended  to  have  set  before  yourselves, 
that  which  consisted  in  strong  and  marked  separation  of  himself  from 
sinners,  and  earnest  asceticism :  and  yet  you  were  so  little  hearty  in  the 
matter,  that  for  all  this  he  found  no  acceptance  among  you.  no  more 
acceptance  than  I  have  found.  You  found  fault  with  him  for  the 
strictness  of  his  manner  of  life,  as  you  find  fault  with  me  for  the 
condescension  of  mine, — and  not  merely  did  you  reject  him  at  first,  but 
afterward  when  his  preaching  bore  manifest  fruit  in  the  conversion  of 
sinners,  when  God  had  thus  set  his  seal  to  it,  when  '  tlie  ptiblicans 
and  Jiarlots  believed  hini,^  even  then  you  could  not  be  provoked  to 
jealousy ;  '•  Ye,  tolien  ye  had  seen  it.  repented  not*  afterward,  that  ye 
might  believe  him." 

In  many  copies,  and  some  not  unimportant  ones,  it  is  the  son  that  is 
first  spoken  to,  who  promises  to  go,  and  afterwards  disobeys,  and  the 
second  who,  refusing  first,  afterwards  changes  his  mind,  and  enters  on 
the  work.  Probably  the  order  was  thus  reversed  by  transcribers,  who 
thought  that  the  application  of  the  parable  must  be  to  the  successive 
callings  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,!  and  that  therefore  the  order  of  their 
callings  should  be  preserved.  But  the  parable  does  not  primarily  apply 
to  the  Jew  and  Gentile,  but  must  be  referred  rather  to  the  two  bodies 
within  the  bosom  of  the  Jewish  people : — it  is  not  said,  the  Gentiles 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  before  you,  but,  the  publicans  and  harlots ; 


*  Ov  fj.ere/j.fX'fi^rjTe — the  word  does  not  in  itself  describe  so  comprehensive  a 
change  as  fxeTafof7v,  and  as  a  less  expressive  word  is  comparatively  very  seldom 
used  in  Scripture.  MirafieAeia  does  not  of  necessity  signify  more  than  the  after 
anxiety  for  a  deed  done,  which  may  be  felt  without  any  true  repentance  towards 
God,  may  be  merely  remorse,  such  as  Judas  felt  after  having  betrayed  his  Master, 
and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  very  word  ixera/j-eX-riSrels  is  used  of  him.  (Matt, 
xxvii.  3.)  In  the  present  case,  however  (that  is,  at  ver.  29),  the  true  fiirauoia  is 
meant,  the  change  of  affections  and  will  and  conduct.  For  a  good  tracing  of  the 
distinction  between  the  two  words,  see  Spanheim's  Dubia  Evang.,  Dub.  9,  v.  3,  p. 
,  16,  seq. 

t  This  is  the  view  maintained  by  Origen,  Chrysostom,  and  Athanasius,  as  also 
by  Jerome,  who  quotes  as  a  parallel  to  "  I  go,  sir,"  the  words  of  the  Jews  at  the 
giving  of  the  law,  "All  that  the  Lord  hath  said  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient." 
(Exod.  xxiv.  7.)  The  Auct.  Opcr.  Impcrf.  interprets  it  as  is  done  above,  noting  at 
length  the  inconveniences  that  attend  the  application  of  it  to  Jew  and  Gentile. 
Maldonatus.  who  assents  to  his  interpretation,  affirms  he  is  the  only  ancient  author 
that  gives  it.  and  is  perplexed  how  the  other  should  have  obtained  such  general 
reception— but  the  ws  e'/uoJ  SoKf7,  with  which  Origen  introduces  his  explanation, 
marks,  that  there  was  another  opinion  current  in  the  Church  in  his  time  ;  even  as 
is  explicitly  stated  by  Jerome  :  Alii  non  putant  Gentilium  et  Judjeorum  esse  para- 
bolam,  sed  simpliciter  peccatorum  et  justorum. 


THE  TWO  SONS.  161 

while  yet  the  other,  if  the  parable  had  admitted,  (and  if  it  had  admitted, 
it  would  have  required  it,)  would  have  been  a  far  stronger  way  of 
provoking  them  to  jealousy.  (Rom  x.  21,  22.)  The  other  application  of 
the  parable  need  not  indeed  be  excluded,  since  the  whole  Jewish  nation 
stood  to  the  Gentile  world,  in  the  same  relation  which  the  more  self- 
righteous  among  themselves  did  to  notorious  trangressors.  But  it  is 
not  till  the  next  parable  that  Jew  and  Gentile,  in  their  relations  to  one 
another,  and  in  their  respective  relations  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  come 
distinctly  and  primarily  forward. 


11 


XI. 

THE   WICKED   HUSBANDMEN. 

Matt.  xxi.  33-44 ;   Mark  xii.  1-12 ;   Luke  xx.  9-18. 

The  Lord's  hearers  would  have  been  well  content  that  he  here  should 
have  paused.  But  no;  he  will  not  let  them  go:  '•'•Hear  anotJier  jja/rabk" 
as  if  he  would  say,  "  I  have  not  done  with  you  yet ;  I  have  still  another 
word  of  warning  and  rebuke,"  and  to  that  he  now  summons  them  to 
listen.  There  is  this  apparent  difference  between  the  accounts  of  the 
several  Evangelists,  that  while  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  relate  the 
parable  as  addressed  to  the  Pharisees,  it  was,  according  to  St.  Luke, 
spoken  to  the  people.  But  the  sacred  narrative  itself  supplies  the  helps 
for  clearing  away  this  slight  apparent  difference,  St.  Luke  mentioning 
the  chief  priests  and  scribes  (ver.  19)  in  a  way  which  shows  that  they 
were  listeners  also ;  and  thus,  being  spoken  in  the  hearing  of  both 
parties,  in  the  mind  of  one  narrator  the  parable  seemed  addressed 
mainly  to  the  people ;  in  that  of  the  others,  to  the  Pharisees. 

The  opening  words  at  once  suggest  a  comparison  with  Isaiah  v.  1-7; 
no  doubt  our  Lord  here  takes  up  the  prophecy  there,  the  more  willingly 
building  on  the  old  foundations,  that  his  adversaries  accused  him  of 
destroying  the  law ;  and  not  in  word  only,  but  by  the  whole  structure  of 
the  parable,  connecting  his  own  appearing  with  all  that  had  gone  before 
in  the  past  Jewish  history,  so  that  men  should  look  at  it  as  part,  indeed 
as  the  crowning  and  final  act,  of  that  great  dealing  of  mercy  and 
judgment  which  had  ever  been  going  forward.  The  image  of  the 
kingdom  of  Grod  as  a  vine-stock*  or  as  a  vineyardf  is  not  peculiar  to 

*  The  vine-stock  often  appears  on  the  Maccabaean  coins  as  the  emblem  of  Pales- 
tine ;  sometimes  too  the  bunch  of  grapes,  and  the  vine-leaf  Thus  Deyling  {Obss. 
ScK..  V.  3.  p.  236)  :  Botrus  prseterea,  folium  vitis  et  palma,  ut  ex  nunynis  apparet, 
Bymbolvun  crant  JudjBae. 

t  Bernard  draws  >ut  the  comparison  between  the  Church  and  the  vineyard  at 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  163 

this  parable,  but  runs  through  the  whole  Old  Testament  (Dcut.  xxxii. 
32;  Ps.  Ixxx.  8-16;  Isai.  v.  1-7;  xxvii.  1-7;  Jer.  ii.  21;  Ezek.  xv.  1-6; 
xix.  10) ;  and  has  this  especial  fitness,  that  no  property  was  considered 
to  yield  so  large  a  .return  (Cant.  viii.  11,  12),  none  was  therefore  of 
such  price  and  esteem,  even  as  none  required  such  unceasing  care  and 
attention.*  Our  Lord  compares  himself  to  the  vine  as  the  noblest  of 
earthly  plants  (John  xv.  1),  and  in  prophecy  had  been  compared  to  it 
long  before.     (Gen.  xlix.  11.) 

It  would  not  be  convenient  to  interpret  the  vineyard  here  as  the 
Jewish  church,  since  the  vineyard  is  said  to  be  taken  away  from  the 
Jews  and  given  to  another  nation  ;  and  it  is  evident  that  this  could  not 
be  accurately  said  of  the  Jewish  church.  In  Isaiah,  indeed,  the  vineyard 
is  that  Jewish  church,  and  consistently  with  this,  it  is  described,  not  as 
transferred  to  others,  but  as  laid  waste  and  utterly  destroyed,  its  hedge 
taken  away,  its  wall  broken  down,  all  labor  of  pruning  or  digging  with- 
drawn from  it,  and  the  heavens  themselves  commanded  that  they  rain  no 
rain  on  it  any  more.  Here,  where  it  is  transferred  to  other  and  more 
faithful  husbandmen,  we  must  rather  understand  by  it  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  its  idea,  which  idea  Jew  and  Gentile  have  been  successively 
placed  in  conditions  to  realize.!  Inasmuch  indeed  as  Israel  according 
to  the  fle-sh  was  the  first  occupier  of  the  vineyard,  it  might  be  said  that 
the  vineyard  at  that  time  was  the  Jewish  church  ;  but  this  arrangement 
was  only  accidental  and  temporary,  and  not  of  necessity,  as  the  sequel 

some  length  (Iiv  Cavt.  Scrm..  30):  In  fide  plantata,  in  caritate  mittit  radices,  de- 
fos.sa  sarculo  disciplinie,  stcrcorata  pcenitciitium  lacrymi.s,  rigata  praedicantium 
verbis,  et  sic  san6  exuberans  vino,  in  quo  est  lietitia,  sed  non  luxuria,  vino  totiua 
suavitatis,  nullius  libidinis.  Hoc  certfe  viaum  lastiricat  cor  hominis,  hoc  constat  et 
angelos  bibere  cum  laetitift.  Augustine  also  {Serm.  ?il,  c.  1)  :  Cultura  ipsius  est  in 
nos,  quod  non  cessat  verbo  suo  extirpare  seniina  mala  de  cordibus  nostris,  aperire 
cor  nostrum  tanquam  aratro  sermonis,  plantare  semina  praeceptorum,  exspectare 
fructum  pietatis.    Cf.  Ambrose,  Exp.  in  Lmc,  1.  9,  c.  29. 

*  It  no  doubt  belongs  to  the  fitness  of  the  image  that  a  vineyard  does,  if  it  is  to 
bring  forth  richly,  require  the  vwat  diligent  and  ncver-cea.sing  care,  that  there  is 
no  season  in  the  year  in  which  much  has  not  to  be  done  in  it.  Virgil  presses  this 
very  .strongly,  in  words  not  unworthy  to  be  kept  in  mind  by  all  to  whom  a  spiritual 
vineyard  has  been  committed  :  see  Gcorg..  2,  397-il'*,  beginning — 

Est  etiam  ille  labor  curamlis  vilibus  alter, 
Cui  nmiqiiam  cxhausti  satis  est :  namque  omne  quotannis 
Terque  qualeniue  solum  scindeiuluin,  glpbaque  versis 
iEternum  frangenda  bidentibus  ;  omne  levandum 
Fronde  nemus.    Redit  a^ricolis  labor  actus  in  orbem, 
Atque  in  se  sua  per  vestigia  volvitur  annus. 

And  so  Cato  :  Nulla  possessio  pretiosior,  nulla  majorem  operara  requirit. 

t  Origen  {Comvi.  in  Mattfi.,  in  loc.)  draw.s  out  clearly  and  well  the  ditlerences 
that  exist  in  this  regard  between  the  parable  in  Isaiah  and  that  recorded  by  the 
Evangelista. 


X64  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEIS'. 

abundantly  proved.  They  were  not  identified  with  the  kingdom  of  Grod; 
to  them  indeed  it  was  first  given  to  realize  that  kingdom,  as  to  these 
husbandmen  the  vineyard  was  first  committed,  but  failure  in  each  case 
involved  forfeiture  of  all  privileges  and  advantages,  with  the  tranfer  of 
them  to  others. 

Tiie  householder  was  more  than  the  possessor  of  this  vineyard,  he 
had  hunscM  ^^2)lanted"  it.  (Exod.  xv.  17.)  The  planting  of  this  spiritual 
vineyard  found  place  under  Moses  and  Joshua,  in  the  establishing  of  the 
Jewish  polity  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  It  is  described  Deut.  xxxii.  12-14. 
See  Ezek.  xvi.  9-14  ;  Neh.  ix.  23-25.  But  the  further  details  of  things 
done  for  the  vineyard, — the  hedging  of  it  round  about,*  the  digging  the 
wine-press,  the  building  the  tower, — are  these,  it  may  be  asked,  to  have 
any  particular  signification  attached  to  them? — or  are  they  to  be  taken 
merely  as  general  expressions  of  that  ample  provision  of  grace  and 
goodness  which  God  made  for  his  people?  Storr,  as  Usual,  will  allow 
nothing  in  them  at  all  beyond  a  general  expression  of  God's  provident 
care  for  his  Church,  such  as  found  utterance  in  his  words  by  the  prophet, 
"  What  could  have  been  done  more  to  my  vineyard,  that  I  have  not  done 
in  it?"  (Isai.  v.  4.)  But  even  those  who  like  him  most  shrink  from  the 
interpretation  of  a  parable  except  in  the  gross,  could  here,  one  might 
have  supposed,  scarcely  have  resisted  the  explanation  of  the  hedging 
round  the  vineyard,  which  is  suggested  by  passages  like  Ephes.  ii.  14, 
where  the  law  is  described  as  "  the  middle  wall  of  partition  "f  between 
the  Jew  and  Gentile.  By  their  circumscription  through  the  law,  the 
Jews  became  a  people  dwelling  alone,  and  not  reckoned  among  the 
nations.     (Num.  xxiii.  9.)     That  law  was  a  hedge  at  once  of  separation 


*  Mr.  Greswell's  observation  {Exp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  5,  p.  4),  that  this  fence  (<ppay- 
fi6s)  is  rather  a  stone  wall  than  a  hedge  of  thorns,  or  of  any  other  living  materials, 
I  should  suppose  mo.st  probably  to  be  quite  correct  (see  Numb.  xxii.  24 ;  Prov. 
xxiv.  31 ;  Isai.  v.  5),  though  in  that  last  passage  the  vinej'ard  appears  to  have  been 
provided  with  both.  Yet  one  of  his  grounds  for  this  seems  questionable,  namely, 
that  the  incursions  of  the  enemies  which  threatened  the  vineyard,  the  foxes  (Cant. 
iL  15)  and  the  wild  boar  (Ps.  Ixxx.  13),  were  not  to  be  etfectually  repelled  except 
by  fences  made  of  stone  :  see  Neh.  iv.  3:  and  Virgil  {Georg.,  2,  371),  while  he  is 
on  the  very  subject  of  the  extreme  injury  which  the  various  animals, — (durique 
vcnenum  Dentis  et  admorso  signata  in  stirpe  cicatrix,) — may  inflict  upon  the  vines, 
enjoins  not  the  building  of  stone  walls,  but  a  careful  keeping  of  the  hedges  as  the 
adequate  measure  of  defence, — Texend.-e  sepes  etiam.  The  thorn  fences,  especially 
if  formed,  as  is  common  in  the  East,  of  the  wild  aloe,  would  be  far  more  effectual 
for  this  than  any  wall  of  stone.  See  also  Homer,  //.  18,  564.  The  word  ^pay^Ss 
itself  determines  nothing,  as  the  fundamental  meaning  of  (ppdaa-w  seems  to  be  to 
surround  or  inclose  (Passow:  umgeben,  einschliessen),  without  itself  determining 
in  the  least  how  the  inclosure  shall  be  effected. 

■f  MfffSroixov  rod  (ppayfiov  there,  as  (ppay/xSs  here. 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  165 

and  of  defence,*  since  in  keeping  distinct  the  line  of  separation  between 
themselves  and  the  idolatrous  nations  around  them,  lay  their  security  that 
they  should  enjoy  the  continued  protection  of  God.  That  protection  is 
called  a  wall  of  fire  Zech.  ii.  5,  and  compare  Ps.  cxxv.  2 ;  Isai.  xxvi.  1 ; 
xxvii.  3.  Nor  is  it  unworthy  of  observation,  that  outwardly  also  Judca, 
through  its  geographical  position,  was  hedged  round — by  the  bounty  of 
nature  on  every  side  circumscribed  and  defended — guarded  on  the  east 
by  the  river  Jordan  and  the  two  lakes,  on  the  south  by  the  desert  and 
mountainous  country  of  Idumaca,  on  the  west  by  the  sea,  and  by  Anti- 
Libanus  on  the  north — for  so.  observes  Vitringa,  had  Grod  in  his  counsels 
determined,  who  willed  that  Israel  should  dwell  alone. 

The  wine-pressf   and   the   towerj  would   both  be  needful   for  the 

*  Ambrose  {Exp.  in,  Luc,  1.  9,  c.  24.)  explains  it :  Divinae  custodia)  munitione 
valalvit,  ne  facile  spiritalium  pateret  incursibus  bestiarum ;  and  Hcxacni.,  1.  3,  c. 
12  :  Circuindodit  earn  vehit  vallo  (luodam  cajlestium  prtuceptorum,  et  angelorum 
custodi&. 

f  Arii/6s  =^  torcular,  in  Mark  viroKriytov  =^  lacus,  in  each  case  a  part  for  the 
whole  ;  the  digging  can  be  applied  strictly  only  to  the  latter,  which  was  often  hol- 
lowed out  of  the  earth  and  then  lined  with  masonry,  as  Chardin  mentions  that  he 
found  theiuiin  Persia  ;  sometimes  they  were  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.  Nonnus 
{Dioiiiji.,  12.  330)  describes,  in  some  spirited  lines,  how  Bacchus  hollowed  out  such 
a  receptacle  from  thence.  In  the  K'nv6s,  or  press  above,  the  grapes  were  placed, 
and  were  there  crushed  commonly  by  the  feet  of  men  (Judg.  ix.  27  :  Neh.  xiii.  15; 
Isai.  xiii.  3),  hence  Bacchus  has  the  epithet,  Arj/zaioj,  the  wine-press  treader  ;  at  the 
bottom  of  this  press  was  a  closely  grated  hole,  through  which  the  juice,  being  ex- 
pressed, ran  into  the  imo\'i)viov  (or  ivpoXiiviov,  Isai.  v.  3,  LXX.),  the  vat  prepared 
beneath  fur  its  reception,  the  lacus  vinarius  of  Columella. 

\  It  may  be  this  irvpyos  was  the  villa  where  at  once  the  fruits  were  kept  and 
the  husbandmen  resided ;  but  I  should  rather  suppose  it  the  tower  of  the  watch- 
men. I  have  seen  in  Spain  temjjorary  towers  erected  for  them,  at  the  season  when 
the  grapes,  approaching  to  ripeness,  might  tempt  the  passers  by,  which  were  there 
the  more  necessary,  as  often  the  vineyard  lay  open  to  the  road  without  any  protec- 
tion whatever.  A  scaffolding  was  raised  to  a  considerable  height  with  planks  and 
poles,  and  matting  above  to  defend  from  the  heat  of  the  sun ;  and  on  the  scaffold- 
ing, which  commanded  an  extensive  view  all  round,  a  watcher,  with  a  long  gun,  was 
planted.  Calderon  has  an  Auto,  La  vina  del  Seiior,  founded  on  this  parable,  and 
explains  the  purpose  of  the  tower  exactly  so : — 

Y  porque  de  la  campana  Assaltando  sus  portillos 

Se  descubran  ^  lo  lejos  Robar,  .sin  ser  descubiertos 

Sus  ambitos,  sin  que  puedan  Sus  frulos,  para  Atalaya 

Tampoco  los  passageros  La  puse  essa  torre  enmedio. 

This  tower  is  the  oir(,>po<pv\a.Kiov  of  Isai.  i.  8,  xxiv.  20,  which  Jerome  explains: 
Specula  quam  custodes  satorum  habere  consueverunt.  Niebuhr  {Bcschrrib.  v. 
Arab.,  p.  138)  sivys :  '•  In  the  mountainous  district  of  Yemen.  I  saw  here  and  there 
as  it  were  nests  in  the  trees,  in  which  the  Arabs  perched  themselves  to  watch  their 
cornfields.  In  Tehama,  where  the  trees  were  scarcer,  tlioy  built  for  this  purpose 
a  high  and  light  scaffold."     Ward  {View  of  the  Hindoos,  v.  2,  p.  327,  quoted  by 


166  THE  "VriCKED  HUSBANDMEN. 

completeness  of  a  vineyard  :  the  latter  not  being  merely  the  ornamental 
building,  the  kiosk  which  belongs  to  the  perfection  of  an  Eastern  garden, 
and  serves  mainly  for  delight,  but  here  serving  as  much  for  use  as 
ornament. — a  place  of  shelter  for  the  watchmen,  who  should  protect  the 
fruits  of  the  vineyard,  and  perhaps  a  receptacle  for  the  fruits  themselves. 
It  is  difficult  satisfactorily  to  point  out  distinct  spiritual  benefits  shadowed 
forth  by  these,  or  to  affirm  that  more  is  meant  than  generally  that  God 
provided  his  people  with  all  things  necessary  for  life  and  godliness,  and 
furnislied  tliem  with  fixed  channels  and  reservoirs  of  his  blessings.  All 
the  explanations  which  are  given  of  this  tower  and  this  wine-press* 
appear  fanciful,  and  though  often  ingenious,  yet  no  one  of  them  such  as 
to  command  an  absolute  assent.f 

Having  thus  richly  supplied  his  vineyard  with  all  things  needful,  he 
"  let  it  out  to  UusbandmenP  These  last  must  be  different  from  the  vine- 
yard which  they  were  to  cultivate,  and  must,  therefore,  be  the  spiritual 
leaders  and  teachers  of  the  people,  while  the  vineyard  itself  will  then 
naturally  signify  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who  were  to  be  instructed 
and  taught,  to  the  end  that,  under  diligent  cviltivation,  they  might  bring 
forth  fruits  of  righteousness.^     By  the  letting  out  of  the  vineyard  to 

• 

Burder)  observes :  "  The  wild  hogs  and  bufialoes  [silvestres  uri,  Georg.,  2,  374J 
make  sad  havoc  in  the  fields  and  orchards  of  the  Hindoos ;  to  keep  them  out,  men 
are  placed  on  elevated  covered  stages  in  the  fields;" — sometimes,  as  a  friend  has 
told  me.  on  mounds  built  with  sods  of  earth ;  and  the  watchers  are  frequently 
armed  with  slings,  which  they  use  with  great  dexterity  and  effect,  to  drive  away 
invaders  of  every  description.  The  Greek  proverb,  y\vK€?  oirccpa,  <pvKaKos  iK\e\oi- 
irSros.  alludes  to  the  custom  of  setting  such  watchers  over  a  vintage. 

*  Generally  the  wine-press  is  taken  to  signify  the  prophetic  institution.  Thus 
Ircnaeus  {Con.  Hcer.,  1.  4,  c.  36) :  Torcular  fodit,  receptaculum  prophetici  Spiritvis 
pr»paravit.  Hilary  (in  Matth.)  :  In  quos  [prophetas]  musti  modo  qua^dam  uber- 
tas  Spiritiis  Sancti  ferventis  influeret.     So  Ambrose,  Exp.  in  Laic,  1.  9,  c.  24. 

f  In  the  parallel  passage  in  Isaiah  two  other  principal  benefits  are  recorded, — 
that  the  vineyard  was  on  a  fruitful  hill  (apertos  Bacchus  amat  colles,  Virgil.)  slop- 
ing towards  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  that  the  stones  were  gathered  out  from  it 
(2  Kings,  iii.  19),  the  last  with  allusion  to  the  ca.sting  out  of  the  Canaanites, 
that  else  might  have  proved  stumbling-blocks  for  God's  people.  (Ps.  cxxv.  3.) 
"With  the  whole  parable  Ezek.  xvi.  will  form  an  instructive  parallel.  There  too,  in 
the  same  manner,  although  under  altogether  a  diflerent  image,  the  Lord  upbraids 
the  ingratitude  of  his  people  with  the  enumeration  of  the  rich  provision  which  he 
had  made  for  them.  "With  this  description  of  the  ample  furniture  of  the  vineyard 
might  be  compared  ver.  10-12  (7f  that  chapter,  for  they  too  in  like  manner  are  em- 
ployed in  describing  what  God  did  for  his  people  at  their  coming  out  of  Egn^t. 

X  A  friend  who  kindly  looked  over  the  notes  on  some  of  these  parables  before 
publication  has  added  a  note,  which  I  am  sure  every  reader  will  be  glad  I  have 
preserved  ;  he  says  :  "  I  do  not  absolutely  question  the  truth  of  this  interpretation, 
but  it  seems  to  me  rather  an  escape  from  a  difficulty  which  does  not  exist  more  in 
the  parable  than  in  all  our  customary  language  about  the  Church.     The  Church  is 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  167 

those,  we  must  understand  the  solemn  commital  which  the  law  made,  of 
this  charge  to  the  priests  and  Levites ;  their  solemn  commission  is 
recognized  and  pressed  in  such  passages  as  Mai.  ii.  7 ;  Ezek.  xxxiv.  2. 
It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  the  parable  is  so  constructed  as  to  imply 
that  the  disobedience,  the  contumacy,  the  unprofitableness  of  the  Jews, 
were  to  be  looked  at  not  merely  in  the  light  of  common  wickedness, 
but  as  a  breach  of  the  most  solemn  trust. — as  ingratitude  of  the  darkest 
dye;  for  no  doubt  it  was  a  great  benefit  to  the  husbandmen  to  be  put  in 
possession  of  a  vineyard  so  largely  and  liberally  furnished  (compare 
Neh.  ix.  25;  Deut.  xvi.  11),  and  every  thing  implies  that  they  had 
entered  into  covenant  with  the  proprietor,  concerning  what  proportion 
of  the  fruits  they  were  to  pay  to  him  in  their  season — even  as  the  Jewish 
people  made  a  solemn  covenant  with  God  at  Horeb,  that  as  he  would  be 
their  God,  so  they  would  be  his  peopla 

The  householder  then,  having  thus  intrusted  the  husbandmen  with 
the  keeping  and  cultivation  of  the  vineyard  on  some  certain  terms, 
"  u-ent  into  a  far  country^''  and,  as  St.  Luke  adds,  -fm-  a  long  while." 
At  Sinai,  when  the  theocratic  constitution  was  founded,  and  in  the 
miracles  which  accompanied  the  deliverance  from  Egypt  and  the  bring- 
ing into  Canaan,  the  Lord  may  be  said  to  have  openly  manifested 
himself  to  Israel,  and  this  done,  to  have  withdrawn  himself  for  a  while, 
not  speaking  to  the  people  again  face  to  face  (Deut.  xxxiv.  10-12),  but 
waiting  in  patience  to  see  what  the  law  would  effect. — what  manner  of 
works  the  people,  under  the  teaching  of  their  spiritual  guides,  would 
bring  forth.* 

'■^And  when  the  time  of  the  fruit  drew  near,  he  sent  his  servants  to 
the  husbandmen  tJiat  they  migid  receive  the  fruits  of  it.''''  How.  it  may 
be  asked,  are  these  servants  to  be  distinguished  from  the  husbandmen  ? 
Exactly  in  this,  that  the  servants,  that  is,  the  prophets,  and  other  more 
eminent  ministers  of  God  in  his  theocracy,  were  sent,  being  raised  up 
at  particular  times,  having  particular  missions. — their  power  lying  in 
their  mission,  while  the  others  were  the  more  regular  and  permanently 
established  ecclesiastical  authorities,  whose  power  lay  in  the  very  con- 
stitution of  the  theocracy  itself  f     The  servants  were  sent  to  receive  the 

both  Uacher  and  taught;  but  the  teachers  are  not  merely  the  ministers  :  the  whole 
Church  of  one  generation  teaches  the  whole  Church  of  another,  by  its  history,  acta, 
worfls  mistakes.  &c.  The  Church  existing  out  of  time  an  unchangeable  body, 
teaches  the  members  of  the  Church  existin?  in  every  particular  time.  The  whole 
eubject  requires  to  be  diligently  examined  and  elucidated.'- 

*  Ambrose  {Exp.  in  Laic.,  1.  9  c.  28) :  Multis  teraporibus  abfuit.  ne  pra?propera 
videretur  exactio :  nam  quo  indulgentior  liberalitas,  ed  inexcnsabilior  )>ervicacia. 
Theopbylact :  ^  o7ro5Tj/uia  rov  ®tov.  ri  naKpoivn'ia.  Bengel :  Innuitur  tempus  divinsa 
taciturnitatis.  ubi  homines  agunt  i)ro  arl>itrio.     See  Ezek.  viii.  12:  Ps.  x.  5. 

t  Bengel :  Servi  sunt  ministri  extraordinarii,  majores :  agricolse,  ordinarii. 


168  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN. 

fruits  of  the  vineyard,  or,  as  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  have  it,  to  receive 
"  of  tlie  fruit  of  the  vineyard^^*  the  householder's  share  of  the  produce, 
whatever  that  might  have  been — the  rent  not  being  to  be  paid  in  money, 
but  in  a  fixed  proportion  of  the  fruits.  Olshausen  says  here,  "  These 
fruits  which  are  demanded,  are  in  no  wise  to  be  explained  as  particular 
works,  nor  yet  as  a  condition  of  honesty  and  uprightness,  but  much 
rather  as  the  repentance  and  the  inward  longing  after  true  inward 
righteousness,  which  the  law  was  unable  to  bring  about.  It  is  by  no 
means  meant  to  be  said  that  the  law  had  not  an  influence  in  producing 
uprightness  :  it  cuts  off  the  grosser  manifestations  of  sin,  and  reveals  its 
hidden  abomination ;  so  that  a  righteousness  according  to  the  law,  can 
even  under  the  law  come  forth  as  fruit,  but  this  to  be  sufficing,  must 
have  a  sense  of  the  need  of  a  redemption  for  its  basis.  (Rom.  iii.  20.) 
The  servants  therefore  here  appear  as  those  who  seek  for  these  spiritual 
needs,  that  they  may  link  to  them  the  promises  concerning  a  coming 
Redeemer :  but  the  unfaithful  husbandmen  who  had  abused  their  own 
position,  denied  and  slew  these  messengers  of  grace." 

The  conduct  of  the  wicked  husbandmen  toward  their  lord's  servants 
is  brought  out  with  more  particularity  in  the  two  later  Gospels  than  in 
the  first.  In  St.  Luke,  the  gradual  growth  of  the  outrage  under  the  sense 
of  impunity  is  distinctly  traced.  When  the  first  servant  came,  they 
^'•heat  him  and  sent  him  aivay  empty;'"  the  next  they  not  only  beat,  but 
'"'•  entreated  him,  shamefully^''  or  according  to  St.  Mark,  who  defines  the 
very  nature  of  the  outrage,  "  at  Imn  they  cast  stones^  aiul  wounded  hhn 
in  the  head^]  and  sent  him,  away  shamefully  handled."    The  expression 

*  'Airb  ToD  Kap-jTov — according  to  the  well-known  metayer  system  once  prevalent 
over  a  great  part  of  Europe,  and  still  known  in  parts  of  France  and  in  Italy ;  the 
two  parties  would  in  Latin  be  styled  partiarii.  Pliny  (Ep.,  1.  9.  37)  mentions  of 
some  of  his  estates  which  had  hitherto  been  very  badly  managed,  that  the  only  way 
in  which  he  could  get  any  thing  from  them,  was  by  letting  them  on  this  system  : 
Medendi  una  ratio  si  non  nummo  sed  partibus  locem :  he  was  to  appoint  some 
guardians  (exactores  and  custodes)  to  secure  his  portion  of  the  produce — differing 
it  is  probable  only  from  these  servants,  that  they  were  to  be  pemianently  on  the 
spot,  to  prevent  fraud,  and  to  see  that  he  obtained  his  just  share.  Chardin  (  Voy. 
en  Perse,  v.  5,  p.  384,  Langlfes  ed.)  gives  much  information  on  the  terms  upon  which 
these  arrangements  are  commonly  made  in  Persia,  and  proceeds  showing  how  some- 
thing like  the  dishonest  and  violent  breaking  of  the  agreement  which  is  supposed 
in  the  parable  might  be  of  frequent  occurrence  :  Get  accord,  qui  paroit  un  march6 
de  bonne  foi  et  qui  lo  devroit  6tre,  se  trouve  n6anmoins  une  source  intarissable  de 
frandc,  de  contestation,  et  de  violence,  ou  la  justice  n'est  presque  jamais  gard^e,  et 
ce  qu'il  y  a  de  fort  singulier  c'est  que  le  seigneur  est  celui  qui  a  toujours  du  pire, 
et  qui  est  \6s.€.  He  then  enters  into  details  of  some  of  these  frauds  and  violences, 
of  wliich.  it  is  true,  none  reach  the  pitch  which  is  here  supposed.  See  Du  Cange, 
s.  vv.  Medietarius  and  Medietas. 

t  St.  Mark  has  here  (xii.  4)  a  singular  use  of  the  word  Ke^f\ai6u,  as  to  wound 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  169 

of  the  original*  would  seem  to  indicate,  that  in  the  wantonness  of  their 
cruelty  and  pride  these  husbandmen  further  devised  some  insulting  out- 
rages, not  expressly  named  in  the  parable,  against  this  servant,  whereby 
they  might  the  more  plainly  testify  their  scorn  of  the  master — some 
outrages,  perhaps,  like  Hanun's,  when  he  "  took  David's  servants,  and 
shaved  oil'  the  one  half  of  their  beards,  and  cut  off  their  garments  in  the 
middle,  and  sent  them  away."  (2  Sam.  x.  4).  The  third  they  wounded, 
and  cast  out  of  the  vineyard  with  violence, — flung  him  forth,  it  might 
be,  with  hardly  any  life  in  him.  In  the  two  first  evangelists  the  outrage 
reaches  even  to  the  killing  of  some  of  the  subordinate  messengers — in 
St.  Luke's  narration  it  is  perhaps  preferable,  that  this  last  and  worst 
outrage  is  reserved  for  the  son  himself,  though  on  the  other  hand  it 
might  be  said  that  some  of  the  prophets  were  not  merely  maltreated, 
but  actually  put  to  death.  Thus,  if  we  may  trust  Jewish  tradition, 
Jeremiah  was  stoned  by  the  exiles  in  Egypt,  Isaiah  sawn  asunder  by  king 
Manasseh ;  and  for  an  ample  historical  justification  of  this  description, 
see  Jer.  xxxvii.  38  ;  1  Kin.  xvii.  13  ;  xxii.  24-27;  2  Kin.  vi.  31 ;  xxi.  16; 
2  Chron.  xxiv.  19-22;  xxxvi.  16;  and  also  Acts  vii.  52;  1  Thess.  ii.  15; 
and  the  whole  passage  finds  a  parallel  in  the  words  of  the  apostle  (Heb. 
xi.  36),  "  And  others  had  trial  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings,  yea 
moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonment.  They  were  stoned,  they  were 
sawn  asunder,  were  tempted,  were  slain  with  the  sword ;  ...  of  whom 
the  world  was  not  worthy." 

The  patience  of  the  householder  under  these  extraordinary  provo- 
cations is  wonderful, — that  he  sends  messenger  after  messenger  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  back,  if  possible,  these  wicked  men  to  a  sense  of 
duty,  and  does  not  at  once  resume  possession  of  his  vineyard,  and  inflict 
summary  vengeance,  as  the  end  proves  that  he  had  power  to  do,  upon 
them :  and  this  his  patience  is  thus  brought  out  and  magnified,  that  it 

in  the  head,  while  yet  it  is  never  elsewhere  used  but  as  to  gather  up  in  one  sum,  as 
under  one  head — of  which  its  more  correct  use,  we  have  a  good  example  in  the 
Ejiistk  of  Barna')as,  c.  v.,  which  as  bearing  in  another  aspect  upon  this  present 
parable,  may  be  quoted.  It  is  there  said  that  the  Son  of  God  came  in  the  flesh, 
'Iva  rb  TfKiiov  tuv  afxapriSiv  KtcpaXaiwaji  toIs  Sid^acriv  iv  bavaT<fi  rovs  Trpo<pT]ras  avTov. 
Passow  seems  hardly  accurate  when  he  says.  s.  v.,  with  allusion,  as  is  evident,  to 
this  passage.  Ke<pe\at6w  in  N.  T.  = /f€(J)aA/^a),  todten.  For  it  is  clear  it  does  not 
mean  to  decajjitate  or  wound  mortally  on  the  head,  since  they  sent  him  away  on 
whom  they  inflicted  this  injury.  We  have  parallels  in  yaa-rpiCw.  to  strike  on  the 
stomach.  yva^6ai  on  the  cheek.  The  notion  of  some  that  here  also  it  is.  breviter 
vel  .suinmatim  egerunt.  they  make  short  work  of  it.  or  as  Lightfoot  ex(»resses  it, 
alluding  to  the  circumstance  that  the  servant  came  to  demand  ])aynient, — they 
reckoned  with  him.  they  squared  accounts  with  him  (ironically),  is  quite  unten- 
able. 

*  'AntffTfiXav  rjTi/iutijtteVov. 


170  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN. 

may  set  forth  the  yet  more  wonderful  forbearance  and  long-suffering  of 
God :  "  Howbeit  I  sent  unto  you  all  my  servants  the  prophets,  rising 
early  and  sending  them,  saying,  Oh,  do  not  this  abominable  thing  that 
I  hate."  (Jer.  xliv.  4.)  "Nevertheless  they  were  disobedient,  and 
rebelled  against  thee,  and  cast  thy  law  behind  their  backs,  and  slew  thy 
prophets  who  testified  against  them,  to  turn  them  to  thee,  and  they 
wrought  great  provocations."  (Neh.  ix.  26.)  The  whole  confession  made 
in  that  chapter  by  the  Levites  is  in  itself  an  admirable  commentary  on 
this  parable. 

'■'■But  lust  of  all  he  sent  unto  them  Ms  son,^'  or  in  the  still  more 
affecting  words  of  St.  Mark  (ver.  6),  "  Having  yet  therefore  one  son.  his 
well-beloved,  he  sent  him  also  last  tmto  them,  saying,  They  loill  reverence 
my  sonP  (See  Heb.  i.  1.)  This  was  the  last  and  crowning  effort  of 
divine  mercy,  after  which,  on  the  one  side  all  the  resources  even  of 
heavenly  love  are  exhausted,  on  the  other  the  measure  of  sins  is 
perfectly  filled  up.  The  description  of  the  son  as  the  only  one,  as  the 
well-beloved,  marks  as  strongly  as  possible  the  difference  of  rank  between 
him  and  the  servants,  the  worth  and  dignity  of  his  person,  who  only  was 
a  Son  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word*  (see  Heb.  iii.  5,  6) ;  and  un- 
doubtedly they  who  were  our  Lord's  actual  hearers  quite  understood 
what  he  meant,  and  the  honor  which  in  these  words  he  claimed  as  his 
own,  though  they  were  unable  to  turn  his  words  against  himself,  and  to 
accuse  him  on  the  strength  of  them,  of  making  himself,  as  indeed  he  did 
then  affirm  himself,  the  Son  of  God.  When  the  householder  expresses 
his  conviction,  that  however  those  evil  men  may  have  outraged  his 
inferior  messengers,  they  will  stand  in  awe  of  and  reverence  his  son,  it 
is  hardly  worth  while  to  make  a  difficulty  here,  as  some  have  done,  from 
the  fact  that  he  whom  the  householder  represents  must  have  fully  known 
from  the  beginning  what  treatment  his  Son  would  receive  from  those  to 
■whom  he  sent  him : — not  that  there  is  not  a  difficulty,  but  that  it  is  the 
same  difficulty  which  runs  through  every  thing,  that  of  the  relations  in 
■which  man's  freedom  and  God's  foreknowledge  stand  to  one  anotherf — 
and  it  does  not  in  truth  come  out  more  strongly  here  than  it  does  every 
where  else,  and  therefore  requires  not  to  be  especially  treated  of  in  this 
place. 

*  This  has  been  often  observed  by  the  early  Church  writers  when  proving  the 
divinity  of  the  Son;  as  by  Ambrose  (De  Vide,  1.  5.  c.  7) :  Vide  quia  antfe  servos, 
postea  filiura  noniinavit;  utscias  quodDeus  Filius  unigenitus  secundiimdivinitatis 
potentiam  nee  nomen  habet,  nee  consortium  commune  cum  servis.  Cf  Iren^us, 
Con.  Har.,  1.  4,  c.  36,  ^  1. 

t  Jerome  :  Qnod  autem  dicit,  Vcrebuntur  fortfe  tilium  meum.  non  de  ignorantia 
dicitnr :  Quid  cnim  nesciat  Paterfamilias,  qui  hoc  loco  Deus  intelligitur "?  Sed 
seni])er  ambigere  Deus  dicitur,  ut  libera  voluntas  homini  reservetur.  Cf  Ambrose, 
De  Fide,  1.  5,  c.  17, 18. 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  171 

"  But  wlien  the  husbandmen  saio  the  son,  they  said  among  themselves, 
This  is  the  lieir;  come,  let  us  kill  him,  and  let  us  seize  on  his  inlieritance." 
Compare  John  xi.  47-53,  and  the  counsels  of  Joseph's  brethren  against 
him,  Gen  xxxvii.  19 ;  "  When  they  saw  him  afar  off,  even  before  he 
came  near  unto  them,  they  conspired  against  him  to  slay  him,  and  they 
said  one  to  another,  Behold  this  dreamer  cometh.  Come  now  therefore, 
let  us  slay  him,  ....  and  we  shall  see  what  will  become  of  his  dreams." 
As  the}',  thinking  to  defeat  the  purpose  of  God  concerning  their  younger 
brother,  helped  to  bring  it  to  pass,  so  tlie  Jewish  rulers  were  the  instru- 
ments to  fulfil  that  purpose  of  God  concerning  Christ  which  they  meant 
to  bring  to  nothing.*  (Acts.  iii.  18;  iv.  27,  28.) — "  This  is  the  Jieir  ;^^ 
he  for  whom  the  inheritance  is  meant,  and  to  whom  it  will  in  due  course 
rightfully  arrive — not  as  in  earthly  relations,  by  the  death,  but  by  the 
free  appointment,  of  the  actual  possessor.  For  it  is  evident  that  "  heir" 
is  not  here  used,  as  it  often  laxly  is,  a  synonyme  for  lord,t  but  the  idea 
of  one  who  is  not  in  present  possession  of  a  good,  but  hereafter  is  com- 
ing to  it.  must  be  held  fast.  (Compare  Phil.  ii.  9-11.)  Christ  is  '•  heir 
of  all  things''  (Heb.  i.  2),  not  as  he  is  the  Son  of  God,  for  the  Chux'ch 
has  always  detected  Arian  tendencies  lurking  in  that  interpretation,  but 
as  he  is  the  Son  of  man.  So  Theodoret:  '■  The  Lord  Christ  is  heir  of 
all  things,  not  as  God,  but  as  man  ;  for  as  God  he  is  maker  of  all." 

It  is  the  heart  which  speaks  in  God's  hearing ;  the  thought  of  men's 
heart  is  their  true  speech,  and  therefore  here  given  even  as  though  it 
were  the  words  of  their  lips; — the  husbandmen  say,  "  Come,  let  us  kill 
him ,-"  not  that  we  are  to  imagine  that  the  Pharisees  even  in  their 
secret  counsels  ever  trusted  one  another  so  far,  or  dared  to  look  their 
own  wickedness  so  directly  in  the  face,  as  thus  to  say,  '•  Tliis  is  the 
Messiah,  therefore  let  us  slay  him."  liut  they  desired  the  inheritance 
should  be  theirs,  they  desired  that  what  God  had  intended  should  only 
be  transient  and  temporary,  enduring  till  the  times  of  reformation,  should 
be  made  permanent, — and  this,  because  they  had  prerogatives  and  pri- 
vileges under  the  imperfect  system,  which  would  cease  when  the  more 
perfect  scheme  was  brought  in,  or  ratlicr  which,  not  ceasing,  would  yet 
be  transformed  into  other  higher  privileges,  for  which  they  had  no 
care.  The  great  master-builder  was  about  to  take  down  the  temporary 
scaffolding  which  had  now  served  its  end,  and  this  his  purpose,  they  the 
under-builders  were  setting  themselves  to  resist,^  and  were  determined, 
at  whatever  cost,  to  resist  to  the  uttermost. — And  further,  may  we  not 


*  Augustine:  Ut  possiderent.  occiderunt, ct quia occiderunt,  pcrdidorunt. 
t  Just  as  in  Latin  oftentimes  liaM-('s=d(>niiiius. 

X  Hilarj' :  Consilium  colonoruni  et  hivriditatis  occiso  hffircdc  presumptio,  spes 
inanis  est  gloriam  Leges  perenipto  Christo  posse  retineri. 


172  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN. 

see  in  this  thought  of  killing  the  heir,  and  seizing  on  the  inheritance  and 
making  it  their  own,  an  allusion  to  the  principle  of  all  self-righteousness, 
which  is  a  seizing  on  the  divine  inheritance,  a  seeking  to  comprehend 
and  take  down  into  self  that  light,  which  is  only  light  while  it  is  recog- 
nized as  something  above  self,  and  whereof  man  is  permitted  to  be  a 
partaker,  but  which  he  neither  himself  originated,  nor  yet  can  ever  pos- 
sess in  fee,  or  as  his  own,  or  otherwise  than  as  a  continual  receiver  of  it 
from  another ;  a  light  too,  which,  by  the  very  success  of  the  attempt  to 
take  it  into  his  own  possession,  is  as  inevitably  lost  and  extinguished,  as 
would  be  a  ray  of  our  natural  light  if  we  succeeded  in  cutting  it  off 
from  its  luminous  source — a  truth  of  which  angels  and  men  have  made 
mournful  experience. 

"  And  they  caught  him,  and  cast  him  out  of  tlie  vineyard,  ami  slexv 
himP  All  three  narrators  describe  him  as  thus  "  cast  out  of  tlie  vine- 
yard"— by  which  we  are  reminded  of  him  who  "  suffered  without  the 
gate."  (Hcb.  xiii.  12,  13;  John  xix.  17.)  By  that,  as  in  the  Penta- 
teuch by  the  exclusion  from  the  camp,  was  signified  the  cutting  off  from 
the  people  of  God,  and  from  all  share  in  their  blessings.  Thus  when 
Naboth  perished  on  charges  of  blasphemy  against  God  and  the  king, 
that  is,  for  theocratic  sins,  '•  they  carried  him  forth  out  of  the  city,  and 
stoned  him  with  stones,  that  he  died."*  (1  Kin.  xxi.  13.)  In  St.  Mark 
it  would  rather  seem  that  having  slain  the  son  first,  they  afterwards  cast 
out  the  body :  they  denied  it  the  common  rites  of  sepulture  :  they  flung 
it  forth  to  show  what  they  had  done,  and  as  much  as  to  say,  that  was 
their  answer  to  the  householder's  demands. 

Having  brought  the  tale  of  these  husbandmen's  guilt  to  a  conclusion, 
and  prophesied  to  the  Jewish  rulers  the  wickedness  which  in  a  few  days 
they  should  accomplish,!  Christ  proceeds  to  ask,  "  W7t.en  the  lord,  there- 
fore, of  the  vineyard  cometh,  what  ivill  lie  do  unto  tliose  husbandmen .'"' 
It  is  very  observable  how  the  successive  generation^,  who  for  so  many 
centuries  had  been  filling  up  the  measure  of  the  iniquity  of  Israel,  are 
considered,  throughout  the  entire  parable,  but  as  one  body  of  husband- 

*  The  act  of  Naboth  dying  for  his  vineyard  has  been  often  adduced  as  a  pro- 
phecy, not  by  word,  but  by  deed,  of  the  death  of  Christ  and  the  purpose  of  that 
death.  Thus,  Ambrose  addresses  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  the  Church  which  he 
has  purchased  with  his  own  blood  {Exip.  in  Lnic,  1.  9,  c.  33) :  Salve  vinea  tanto 
digna  custode :  te  non  unius  Nabuthas  sanguis,  sed  innumerabilium  prophetarum 
et  (quod  est  amplius)  pretiosus  curor  Domini  consccravit.  Hie  .  .  .  temporalem 
vineam  defendebat,  te  vero  in  perpetuura  multorum  nobis  martyrum  plantavit 
interitus,  te  crux  apostolorum  temula  Dominicfe  passionis  usque  in  orbis  totius 
terminos  propagavit. 

t  "We  have  a  remarkable  example  of  a  like  prophesying  to  men  their  wicked- 
ness, as  a  last  endeavor  to  turn  them  away  from  that  wickedness,  in  Elisha's  pro- 
phecy to  Hazael,  2  Kin.  viii.  12-15. 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  173 

men.  And  this,  because  God's  truth  is  every  where  opposed  to  that  shal- 
low nominalism  which  would  make  such  a  word  as  "  nation"  a  dead  ab- 
straction, a  mere  convenient  help  to  the  understanding.  God  will  deal 
with  nations  as  indeed  beings  as  having  a  living  unity  in  themselves,  as 
in  fact  bodies^  and  not  as  being  merely  convenient  mental  terms  to  ex- 
press certain  aggregations  of  individuals.  Unless  this  were  so,  all  con- 
fession of  our  fathers'  sins  would  be  mere  mockery,  and  such  passages 
as  Matt,  xxiii.  32-35,  without  any  meaning  at  all.  This  is  one  of  the 
many  ways  in  which  God  encounters  our  selfish,  self-isolating  tenden- 
cies ;  and  wliile  there  is  an  abundant  blessing  in  this  law  of  his  govern- 
ment, supplying  as  it  does  new  motives  and  incentives  to  good,  so  is 
there  no  hardship  or  injustice  in  it.  For  while  there  is  a  life  of  the  whole, 
there  is  also  a  life  of  each  part,  so  that  even  should  we  belong  to  a 
nation,  in  that  of  its  generations  which  is  chastised  for  all  its  own  and 
its  fathers'  iniquities, — a  generation  upon  which,  having  filled  up  the  last 
drop  of  the  measure,  the  accumulated  weight  of  chastisement  is  descend- 
ing,— yet  it  remains  always  possible  for  every  individual  even  of  that 
generation,  by  personal  faith  and  repentance,  to  withdraw  himself,  not 
indeed  always  from  sharing  in  the  outward  calamity,  though  often  there 
will  bo  an  ark  when  a  world  perishes,  a  Pella  when  Jerusalem  is  de- 
stroyed, but  always  to  withdraw  himself  from  that  which  really  consti- 
tutes the  calamity, — the  wrath  of  God,  of  which  the  outward  visitation 
is  but  the  expression. 

The  necessity  of  preserving  the  due  probabilities  of  the  narrative 
renders  it,  of  course,  impossible  that  it  should  be  the  son,  through  whom 
the  final  vengeance  is  executed  on  these  thankless  and  wicked  husband- 
men ;  he  is  slain,  and  cannot,  like  him  whom  he  shadows  forth,  rise 
again  to  take  just  vengeance  on  his  murderers.  It  must  necessarily  be 
the  lord  of  the  vineyard, — that  is,  the  Father:  neither  is  there  any  thing 
here  which  is  not  easily  reconcilable  to  the  general  doctrine  of  the 
Scripture,  for  it  is  the  Father  revealing  himself  in  the  Son,  who  both 
gave  the  law  at  Sinai,  and  will  also,  in  the  end  of  time,  return  to  take 
vengeance  on  all  that  obey  not  the  Gospel.  In  the  question  itself, 
"  Mlten  the  lord  of  tlic  vineyard  comctli^  what  xoill  lie  do  unto  those  hus- 
bandmen?" Christ  makes  the  same  appeal  to  his  hearers,  compelling  them 
to  condemn  themselves  out  of  their  own  mouths,  which  Isaiah  (v.  3)  had 
done  before.*  It  may  be  that  the  Pharisees,  to  whom  he  addressed  him- 
self, had  as  yet  missed  the  scope  of  the  parable,  answering  as  they  did, 

*  Vitringa  there  observes :  Tam  enim  liquidum  est  Dei  jus,  ut  si  homo  oxuto 
affectii  in  tortio  siniili  coiitonipletur  quod  sui  amorc  excfucatus  in  se  videre  non  vult, 
per  conscicntiani  obligatur  ad  ag-noscendam  causiv  divin.-c  justitiam.  Imo  neminem 
Dcus  damnat,  nisi  ([uem  sua  condemnet  conscientia.  Ilabet  enim  Deus  in  omni 
homino  suum  tribunal,  sui  sedem  judicii,  et  per  homincra  de  homiuc  judicat. 


174  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN. 

"  He  will  miserably  destroy  tJwse  loicked  men*  and  will  let  out  his  vine- 
yard  unto  other  hushandmen^^^  and  so,  before  they  were  aware,  pro- 
nounced sentence  against  themselves  ;  or  Olshausen  may  be  more  cor- 
rect in  supposing  that  they  as  yet  pretended  not  to  perceive  its  drift,  and 
therefore  rendered  necessary  the  still  more  explicit  words  (ver.  42-44), 
which  it  was  impossible  any  longer  to  affect  to  misunderstand :  "  There- 
fore I  say  vnto  you^  The  kingdom  of  God  shall  he  taken  from  you^  and 
given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  tlie  fruits  thereof"  Then  at  length 
Christ  and  his  adversaries  stood  face  to  face,  as  did  once  before  a  pro- 
phet and  a  wicked  king  of  Israel,  when  the  prophet,  having  obtained  in 
his  disguise  a  sentence  from  the  lips  of  the  king  against  himself,  removed 
the  ashes  from  his  face,  and  the  king  "  discerned  him  that  he  was 
of  the  prophets,"  and  that  he  had  unconsciously  pronounced  his  own 
doom.  (1  Kin.  xx.  41.) — The  "  God  forbid"  which,  according  to  St. 
Luke,  the  people  uttered  when  they  heard  the  terrible  doom  of  the  hus- 
bandmen, gives  evidence  that  the  scope  of  the  parable  had  not  escaped 
their  comprehension, — that  they  had  understood  it,  even  before  its  plain 
interpretation  at  the  last.f  The  Pharisees  had  too  much  wariness  and 
self-command  to  have  allowed  such  an  exclamation  to  have  escaped  from 
them.  The  exclamation  itself  was  either  an  expression  of  fear,  desiring 
that  such  evil  might  be  averted, — or  of  unbelief,  "  That  shall  never  be, 
it  is  impossible  that  our  privileges  can  ever  be  so  forfeited  :" — This  last 

*  Ka/cous  KaKus,  a  proverbial  expression,  and  one  as  Grotius  observes,  petita  ex 
puris.simo  sermone  Grasco ;  he  does  not,  however,  give  any  examples.  This  re- 
markable one.  which  is  a  parallel  in  much  more  than  those  two  words,  may  suffice 
in  place  of  many  that  might  be  adduced. 

Toiydp  cr^''  'O\vjj,irov  Toils'  6  irpecr^eiwv  irar^jp, 
Mv7)fxotiv  t'  '^pivvvs.  KOL  Te\ea(j)6pos  AIkt] 
KaKovs  KUKcos  (p^eipeiav.  uxrirfp  ij^eXov 
Thv  &vSpa  AciySais  iKfia\f7v,  ava^lws. 

Sophocles,  Ajax,  1389, 

Our  ver.sion  has  not  attempted  to  preserve  the  paronomasia,  which  for  evident 
reasons  is  far  from  being  easy.  The  same  difficulty  attends  the  double  ^^e  Ipetv 
(1  Cor.  iii.  17,)  for  which  our  version  has  equally  failed  to  give  an  equivalent. 
Compare  Apuleius :  At  te  .  .  .  pessimum  pessimfe  perdant.  In  Plutarch's  Amal-or. 
10,  we  meet  Ka\hv  KaXws. — How  remarkable  in  connection  with  this  passage  are 
those  words  of  Joscphus.  {Bell.  Jud..  4,  5,  2.)  in  which  he  asserts  his  conviction 
that  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  might  be  traced  up  to  the  murder  of  one  man, 
Ananus  the  high  priest :  he  only  errs  in  the  person  whom  he  names. 

t  Augustine  {Dc  Cons.  Evang.,  1.  2,  c.  70)  is  not  very  siiccessful  in  his  scheme 
for  reconciling  any  slight  discrepancy  which  may  here  appear  between  the  narra- 
tives of  the  different  Evangelists  ;  but  the  apparent  discrepancy  is  in  itself  so  slight, 
and  so  easily  removable,  that  even  Strauss,  who  in  general  makes  the  weakest  and 
thousand  times  refuted  objections  do  service  anew,  has  not  thought  it  worth  whilo 
to  bring  forward  this. 


THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN.  175  ' 

is  more  probable  from  the  spirit  and  temper  of  those  who  give  it  utter- 
ance. 

Thereupon  the  Lord,  in  confirmation  of  this  truth  so  strange  to  his 
hearers,  quotes  a  prophecy  from  the  Old  Testament,  which  proved  that 
sucli  a  turn  of  things  had  been  contemplated  long  before  in  the  counsels 
of  God — ''Did  ye  never  read  in  the  Scriptures,  The  stone  which  the 
builders  rejected,  the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner  ?"  The 
quotation  is  from  Ps.  cxviii.  22,  23,  a  psalm  of  which,  as  already  has 
been  noted,  the  Jews  recognized  the  application  to  the  Messiah,  and  of 
which  there  is  the  same  application  at  Acts  iv.  11  ;  1  Pet.  ii.  7 ;  and  an 
allusion  somewhat  more  remote,  Ephes.  ii.  20.*  The  passage  quoted 
forms  an  exact  parallel  with  this  parable.  The  builders  answer  to  the 
husbandmen  : — they  were  appointed  of  God  to  carry  up  the  spiritual 
building,  as  these  to  cultivate  the  spiritual  vineyard.  The  rejection  of 
the  chief  corner  stone  answers  exactly  to  the  denying  and  murdering 
the  heir.  The  reason  why  he  leaves  for  a  moment  tiie  image  of  the 
vineyard,  is  because  of  its  inadequacy  to  set  forth  one  important  part  of 
the  truth,  which  yet  was  needful  to  make  the  moral  complete,  namely 
this,  tiiat  the  malice  of  the  Pharisees  should  not  defeat  the  purpose  of 
God. — that  the  son  should  yet  be  the  heir, — that  not  merely  vengeance 
should  be  taken,  but  that  he  should  take  it.  Now  this  is  distinctly  set 
forth  by  the  rejected  stone  becoming  the  head  of  the  corner,  on  which 
the  builders  stumbled  and  fell,  and  were  broken,! — on  which  they  were 
now  already  thus  stumbling  and  falling,  and  which,  if  they  set  them- 
selves against  it  to  the  end,  would  fall  upon  them  and  crush  and  destroy 
them  utterly.^  They  fall  on  the  stone,  who  are  offended  at  Christ  in 
his  low  estate  (Isai.  viii.  14;  Luke  ii.  34);  of  this  sin  his  hearers 
were  already  guilty.  There  was  yet  a  worse  sin  which  they  were  on 
the  point  of  committing,  which  he  warns  them  would  be  followed  with  a 
more  tremendous  punishment :  they  on  whom  the  stone  falls  are  they 

*  Thi'  a-KpoywuMMs  there  =  xiSios  els  /c6(^a\V  yoivias  here ;  the  headstone  of 
Zcch.  iv.  7.  A(iuila :  6  \i^os  6  irpwrevoiv.  (See  1  Kin.  v.  17.)  It  was  a  favorite 
view  of  the  early  Fathers  tliat  Christ  was  called  the  corner  stone,  because  he  united 
tlie  Jew  and  the  Gentile,  making  both  one :  thus  Augustine,  in  almost  numberless 
places — fill- instance  (&n«.  88,  c.  11):  Angulus  duos  parietes  copulat  de  diverso 
venientes.  Quid  tarn  diversum  qukm  circumcisio  et  prajputium.  habens  unum 
pari{!teni  dc  .ludfe^  altcrum  parietera  de  gentibus!  sed  angulari  lapide  copulantur. 

t  rajetaii :  Plus  snbjungit  quam  parabola  pateretur :  Parabola  enim  usque  ad 
vindictani  duxit ;  sed  hftc  additione  suppletur,  quod  occisio  filii  non  privavit  tilium 
haereditate  :  hoc  enim  significat  adjuncta  proplietia  de  Messi^  sub  metamorphosk 
lapidis. 

X  Lachmann  marks  ver.  44  in  Matthew,  as  an  interpolation,  brought  in  from  St. 
Luke  ;  and  it  certainly  seems  out  of  its  place,  as  one  would  have  naturally  looked 
for  it  after  ver.  42. 


176  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN". 

who  set  themselves  in  distinct  and  self-conscious  opposition  against  the 
Lord, — who,  knowing  who  he  is,  do  yet  to  the  end  oppose  themselves  to 
him  and  to  his  kingdom  ;*  and  theij  shall  not  merely  fall  and  be  broken, 
for  one  might  recover  himself,  though  with  some  present  harm,  from  such 
a  foil  as  this ;  but  on  them  the  stone  shall  fall  and  shall  grindf  them  to 
powder, — in  the  words  of  Daniel,  "  like  the  chaff  of  the  summer  thresh- 
ing-floors," destroying  them  with  a  doom  irreversible,  and  from  which 
there  should  be  no  recovery. | 

All  three  Evangelists  notice  the  exasperation  of  the  chief  priests  and 
scribes,  when  tliey  perceived,  as  they  all  did  at  last,  though  it  would 
seem  some  sooner  than  others,  that  the  parable  was  spoken  against  them; 
they  no  longer  kept  any  terms  with  the  Lord,  and,  had  they  not  feared 
the  people,  would  have  laid  violent  hands  on  him  at  once.  Yet  not  even 
so  did  he  give  them  up  ;  but  as  he  had,  in  this  parable,  set  forth  their 
relation  to  God  as  a  relation  of  duty,  as  he  had  shown  them  how  a  charge 
was  laid  upon  them,  which  they  incurred  the  greatest  guilt  and  the  most 
fearful  danger  in  neglecting  to  fulfil,  so  in  the  ensuing  parable, — of  the 
Marriage  of  the  King's  Son,  he  sets  it  forth  in  a  yet  more  inviting  light 
as  a  relation  of  privilege, — not  any  more  as  a  duty  and  charge,  but  as 
a  grace  and  boon  freely  imparted  to  them  ;  which  yet  they  incurred  an 
equal  danger  and  guilt  in  counting  light  of  or  despising. 

*  So  Tertullian  {^Adv.  Marc,  1.  3,  c.  7),  and  Augustine  :  Christus  verus  lapis  in 
hoc  seculo  quasi  terrse  infixus  jacet,  in  judicio  vero  futuro  quasi  ex  summo  veniet, 
impios  conteret :  hoc  dictum  est  de  lapide  illo,  Qui  offenderit  in  lapidem  iUum.  con- 
quassabit  eum,  super  quern  venerit,  conteret  eum :  aliud  est  conquassari,  aliud 
conteri :  conquassari  minus  est  quam  conteri. 

t  AiK/x-fiffft,  from  Af/cyuJs  =  tztvov,  Matt.  iii.  12,  the  fan  with  which  the  chaff, 
which  in  the  act  of  threshing  had  been  crushed  and  broken  into  minute  fragments, 
is  scattered  and  driven  away  upon  the  wind.  (Isai.  xli.  2,  25,  16.)  In  the  N.  T.  it 
occurs  only  here  ;  in  the  parallel  passage,  Dan.  ii.  44,  KiK/i-fiffei  wdcras  ras  fiaa-tXelas. 

X  H.  De  Sto  Victore  makes  the  following  application  of  the  parable  to  every 
man  {Annott.  in  Laic.)  :  Secundum  moralem  sensum  vinea  locatur,  ciim  mysterium 
haptismi  fidelibus  ad  exercendum  opere  committitur.  Mittuntur  tres  servi  ut  de 
fructu  accipiant,  ciim  Lex  Psalmodia,  Prophetia,  ad  bene  agendum  hortatur  :  sed 
contumeliis  affecti,  vel  csesi  ejiciuntur,  ci^m  sermo  auditus  vel  contemnitur,  vel 
blasphematur.  Missum  insuper  hseredem  occidit,  qui  filium  Dei  contemnit,  et 
spiritui  quo  sanctificatus  est,  contumeliam  facit.  Vinea  alteri  datur,  cum  gratia., 
quam  superbus  abjicit,  humilis  ditatur. 


\ 


XII. 
THE   MARRIAGE   OF  THE   KING'S   SON.* 

Matthew  xxii.  1-14. 

This  parable,  and  that  wbich  is  found  at  Luke  xiv.  16,  are  not  to  be 
confounded  with  one  another,!  as  if  they  were  only  two  different  ver- 
sions of  the  same  discourse,  though  Calvin,  indeed,  and  others  have  so 
confounded  them.  It  is  true  that  the  same  image  lies  at  the  root  of  both, 
that,  namely,  of  an  invitation  to  a  festival ;  yet  it  is  plain  that  they  were 
spoken  on  very  different  occasions, — that  at  a  meal,  this  in  the  temple, — 
and  that,  too,  at  a  much  earlier  period  of  our  Lord's  ministry  than  this. 
For  then  the  hostility  of  the  Pharisaic  party  had  not  yet  openly  declared 
itself,  nor  indeed  reached  that  pitch  to  which  it  afterwards  arrived  ;  on 
the  contrary,  we  find  one  of  the  chief  Pharisees,  on  the  very  occasion 
when  the  other  parable  was  spoken,  had  invited  the  Saviour  to  eat  bread 
with  him.  (Luke  xiv.  1.)  But  when  this  parable  was  spoken,  their  hos- 
tility had  already  attained  to  the  highest  point,  even  to  the  formal  deter- 
mination of  making  away  with  Christ  by  violent  means.  (John  xi.  47- 
53.)  Then  there  was  yet  hope  that  they  might,  perhaps,  be  won  over 
to  obedience  to  the  truth :  now  they  were  fixed  in  their  rejection  of  the 
counsel  of  God,  and  in  their  hatred  of  his  Christ.  And  consistently  with 
the  different  times,  and  the  different  tempers  of  the  hearers,  the  parable 
in  St  Luke  wears  a  milder,  in  St.  Matthew  a  severer  aspect : — in  the 
latter  the  guilt  is  greater,  the  retribution  more  terrible.  In  that  other, 
the  guests  decline  indeed  the  invitation,  but  civilly  excuse  themselves ; — 

*  This  title,  which  is  the  one  given  to  the  parable  in  the  heading  of  the  chapter 
in  our  version,  seems  prefei<able  to  that  by  which  it  is  sometimes  called,  namely, 
the  AVedding  Garment ;  for  then  the  name  is  given,  not  from  the  main  circum- 
stance of  the  narrative,  but  from  that  which  is  but  an  episode  in  it:  and  the  other 
title.  The  Marriage  of  the  King's  Son.  quite  as  effectually  distinguishes  the  present 
parable  from  that  of  the  Great  Supper  in  St.  Luke. 

t  See  Augustine,  De  Cons.  Evang.,  1.  2,  c.  71. 
12 


178  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

in  this,  they  mark  their  contempt  for  the  invitation  as  strongly  as  they 
can,  not  thinking  it  worth  their  while  to  make  any  excuse,  and  some  of 
them  maltreating  and  killing  the  servants,  the  bearers  of  the  message. 
Doubtless  too,  had  it  consisted  with  the  decorum  of  the  other  parts  of  the 
narration,  the  king's  son  himself  would  have  been  the  bearer  of  the  invi- 
tation and  the  victim  of  their  outrage,  as  was  the  householder's  son  in 
the  last  parable.  In  that,  the  contemptuous  guests  are  merely  excluded 
from 'the  festival, — in  this,  their  city  is  burned  up  and  themselves  de- 
stroyed. And  as  the  contempt  would  be  aggravated  in  proportion  to  the 
dignity  and  honor  of  the  person  inviting  and  the  solemnity  of  the  occa- 
sion, this  increased  guilt  is  set  forth  by  the  fact  of  its  being  a  king, — and 
no  common  man,  as  in  that  other, — who  makes  the  festival, — so  that  re- 
bellion is  mingled  with  their  contempt, — and  the  festival  itself  no  ordi- 
naiy  one,  but  one  in  honor  of  his  son's  marriage ; — by  which  latter  cir- 
cumstance is  brought  out  the  relation  of  the  Jews,  not  merely  to  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  general,  but  their  relation  to  Jesus,  the  personal  theo- 
cratic King ;  and  in  every  way  the  guilt  involved  in  their  rejection  of 
him  is  heightened.  And  again,  while  in  the  parable  recorded  by  St. 
Luke,  nothing  more  is  threatened  than  that  God  would  turn  from  one 
portion  of  the  Jewish  people, — from  the  priests  and  the  Pharisees, — and 
offer  the  benefits  which  they  counted  light  of,  to  another  part  of  the  same 
nation, — the  people  that  knew  not  the  law,  the  publicans  and  hai-lots, — 
with  only  a  slight  intimation  (ver.  23)  of  the  call  of  the  Gentiles ;  in  St. 
Matthew  it  is  threatened  that  the  kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  wholly 
away  from  the  Jewish  people,  who  had  now  proved  themselves  in  the 
mass,  and  with  very  few  exceptions,  despisers  of  its  privileges,  and  should 
be  given  to  the  Gentiles.* 

But  one  of  the  latests  cavillers,!  not  attending  to  these  circumstances 
which  justify  and  perfectly  explain  the  appearance  of  the  parable  in 
forms  so  diiferent,  asserts  that  here  St.  Luke  is  the  only  accurate 
narrator  of  Christ's  words,  and  that  St.  Matthew  has  mixed  up  with 
them  some  heterogeneous  elements, — for  instance,  some  particulars,  as 
of  the  maltreatment  and  murder  of  the  servants,  drawn  from  the  parable 


*  Fleck  {De  Reg.  Div.,  p.  241)  with  truth  observes:  Parabolanim  in  posterio- 
ribus  Matth?eiani  hbri  partibiis  propositarum  talis  est  indoles,  ut  sacrum  divini 
animi  mctrorem  Spirent,  et  severum  prodant  habitum.  Incidunt  in  ea  tempora 
quibus  Pliaris;eorum,  sacerdotum,  seniorumque  plebis  machinationem,  maligna 
consilia,  ct  coecitatem  abunde  expcrtus  Servator,  divina;  causae  qnotidie  infestiores 
prsevidit  futures.  And  linger  {De  Parab.Jes.  Nat.,  p.  122) :  Videtur  itaque  Mat- 
thaeus  parabolam  tradidisse,  qualem  Jesus  posteriore  ea.que  austeriore  occasione 
ipse  repctierit,  variatam,  auctiorem,  severiorem,  jam  toto  de  populo  judaico  moeste 
vaticinantem. 

t  Strauss  :  Lebeii  Jesu.,  v.  1,  p.  677,  seq. 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON".  179 

preceding ;  and  has  also  blended  into  the  same  whole,  the  fragment  of 
another,  namely,  the  Wedding  Garment,  which  when  uttered,  was  totally 
distinct.  For  the  first  assertion  his  only  argument  wearing  the  slightest 
appearance  of  probability,  is,  that  while  it  is  quite  intelligible  how  the 
husbandmen  should  abuse  and  maltreat  servants  of  their  lord,  who  came 
demanding  rent  from  them  ;  it  is  inconceivable,  and  therefore  could  not 
find  place  in  a  parable,  of  which  the  very  condition  is,  that  it  should 
have  perfect  verisimilitude. — that  invited  guests,  however  unwilling  to 
keep  their  engagement,  should  actually  maltreat  and  kill  the  servants 
sent  to  remind  them  that  the  festival,  to  which  they  were  engaged,  was 
now  ready.  It  is  of  course  true  that  this  ca7i  with  difiiculty  be  conceived, 
when  we  suppose  no  other  motive  but  unwillingness  to  keep  the  engage- 
ment at  work  in  them.  But  may  we  not  rather  presume  that  a  deep 
alienation  from  their  lord,  with  a  readiness  to  resist  and  rebel  against 
him,  existing  long  before,  found  its  utterance  here?  In  the  presence  of 
these  his  ambassadors,  an  outrage  against  whom  would  express  as  much 
as  an  outrage  against  himself,  the  desired  occasion  may  have  oifered 
itself  for  showing  a  hostility,  which  had  long  been  entertained.*  The 
little  apparent  motive  makes  their  conduct  almost  monstrous,  yet  thus 
fitter  to  declare  the  monstrous  fact,  that  men  should  maltreat  and  slay 
the  messengers  of  God's  grace,  the  ambassadors  of  Christ,  who  came  to 
them  with  glad  tidings  of  good  things, — should  be  ready  to  rend  tJiem^ 
as  well  as  to  tread  their  pearls  under  foot. 

His  other  objection,  that  the  latter  part  of  the  parable  which  relates 
to  the  wedding  garment  cannot  have  originally  belonged  to  it,  is  partly 
the  old  one,  that  the  guest  could  not  in  justice  be  punished  for  not  hav- 
ing that,  which,  as  the  course  of  the  story  goes,  he  had  no  opportunity  of 
obtaining — on  which  objection  there  will  be  occasion  presently  to  remark 
— and  partly,  that  this  is  an  entirely  new  and  alien  element  introduced 
into,  and  marring  the  unity  of,  the  parable ;  something  appended  to,  not 
intimately  cohering  with  it.  But  so  far  from  this  being  the  case,  we 
have  here  a  wonderful  example  of  the  love  and  wisdom  which  marked 
the  teaching  of  our  Lord.  For  how  fitting  was  it  in  a  discourse  which 
set  forth  how  sinners  of  every  degree  were  invited  to  a  fellowship  in  the 
blessings  of  the  Gospel,  that  they  should  be  reminded  likewise,  that 
for  the  lasting  enjoyment  of  these,  they  must  put  off  their  former  con- 

*  Oftentimes  in  the  East,  a  feast  would  have  a  great  political  significance,  would 
in  fact  be  a  great  gathering  of  the  vassals  of  the  king  ;  contemplated  on  this  side, 
their  refusal  to  come  at  once  assumes  the  aspect  of  rebellion.  Thus  there  are 
many  reasons  to  suppo.se  that  the  feast  recorded  in  Esth.  i.  is  the  .same  as  the  great 
gathering  which  Xerxes  (Ahasuerus)  made  when  he  was  planning  his  Greek  expe- 
dition, {avWoyov  Mk\7}tou  nfp(xea)v  raiv  aptiTTaiy,  Herod.  1.  7,  c.  8.)  though  Herodo- 
tus  brings  out  more  its  political,  the  sacred  historian  its  festal,  side. 


180  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

versation. — in  Theophylact's  words,  "  that  the  entrance,  indeed,  to  the 
marriage-feast  is  without  scrutiny,  for  by  grace  alone  we  are  all  called, 
as  well  bad  as  good ;  but  the  life  of  those  that  have  entered,  hereafter 
shall  not  be  without  scrutiny : — the  King  will  make  a  very  strict  exam- 
ination of  those  who,  having  entered  into  the  faith,  shall  be  found  in 
filthy  garments  " — a  most  needful  caution,  lest  any  should  abuse  the 
grace  of  God,  and  forget  that  while  as  regarded  the  past  they  were 
freely  called,  they  were  yet  now  called  unto  holiness.  , 

Thus  much  on  the  relation  in  which  this  parable  stands  to  that  re- 
corded by  St.  Luke.  In  the  present,  as  compared  with  the  last,  we  see 
how  the  Lord  is  revealing  himself  in  ever  clearer  light  as  the  central 
person  of  the  kingdom,  giving  here  a  far  plainer  hint  than  there  of  the 
nobility  of  his  descent.  There  he  was  indeed  the  son,  the  only  and  belov- 
ed one.  of  the  householder ;  but  here  his  race  is  royal,  and  he  appears 
himself  at  once  as  the  king,  and  the  king's  son.  (Ps.  Ixxii.  1.)  This 
appearance  of  the  householder,  as  the  king,  announces  that  the  sphere  in 
which  this  parable  moves  is  the  New  Testament  dispensation — is  the 
kingdom,  which  was  announced  before,  but  was  only  actually  present 
with  the  coming  of  the  king.  That  last  was  a  parable  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament history;  even  Christ  himself  appears  there  rather  as  the  last  and 
greatest  of  the  line  of  its  prophets  and  teachers,  than  as  the  founder  of  a 
new  kingdom.  In  that,  a  parable  of  the  law,  God  appears  demanding 
something  from  men ;  in  this,  a  parable  of  grace.  God  appears  more  as 
giving  something  to  them.  There,  he  is  displeased  that  his  demands  are 
not  complied  with — here,  that  his  goodness  is  not  accepted ;  there  he 
requires,  here  he  imparts.  And  thus,  as  we  so  often  find,  the  two 
mutually  complete  one  another ;  this  taking  up  the  matter,  where  the 
other  left  it. 

The  two  favorite  images  under  which  the  prophets  set  forth  the 
blessings  of  the  new  covenant,  and  of  all  near  communion  with  God — 
that  of  a  festival  (Isai.  xxv.  6,  Ixv.  13 ;  Cant.  v.  1),  and  that  of  a  mar- 
riage* (Isai.  Ixi.  10,  Ixii.  5;  Hos.  ii.  19;  Matt  ix.  15;  John  iii. '29  ; 
Ephes.  v.  32 ;  2.  Cor.  xi.  2) — are  united  and  interpenetrate  one  another 


*  The  phrase  TroieTv  ydfj-oy,  occurring  Gen.  xxix.  22 ;  Tob.  viii.  19 ;  1  Mace.  ix. 
37,  X.  58.  (LXX.,)  is  rather,  as  also  often  in  classical  Greek,  to  celebrate  the  mar- 
riage feast  than  the  marriage  (see  Matt.  xxv.  10 ;  Esth.  ii.  18),  and  sometimes  the 
notion  of  the  marriage  is  altogether  lost,  and  that  of  the  festival  alone  remains :  so 
for  instance,  Esth.  ix.  22,  where  the  yd/xoi  are  merely  feastings ;  not  otherwise,  I 
think,  should  the  word  be  understood  at  Luke  xiv.  8.  and  at  ver.  4  of  the  present 
parable.  Singularly  enough,  exactly  the  reverse  has  happened  with  the  German 
Hochzeit,  which  signifying  at  first  any  high  festival,  is  now  only  the  festival  of  a 
marriage.  These  marriage  festivities  lasted  commonly  seven  or  fourteen  days. 
(Gen.  xxix.  27 ;  Juljr.  xiv.  12 ;  Tob.  viii.  19.) 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  X81 

in  the  marriage  festival*  here.  There  appears  indeed  this  inconvenience, 
resulting  from  the  inadequacy  of  things  human  to  set  forth  things  di- 
vine, that  the  members  of  the  Church  are  at  once  the  guests  invited  to 
the  feast,  and,  in  their  collective  capacity,  constitute  the  bride  at  whose 
espousals  the  feast  is  given. f  But  in  the  progress  of  the  narrative  the 
circumstances  of  the  marriage  altogether  fall  into  the  background  ;| 
the  different  conduct  of  the  guests  invited  to  the  feast  becomes  the 
prominent  feature  of  the  narration.  This  parable,  like  the  last,  has  its 
groundwork  and  its  rudiments  in  the  Old  Testament  (Exod.  xxi.v  1 1  ; 
Zeph.  i.  7,  8  ;  Prov.  ix.  1),  and  it  entered  quite  into  the  circle  of  Jewish 
expectations,  that  the  setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah  should 
be  accompanied  with,  and  ushered  in  by,  a  glorious  festival :  atd  else- 
where our  Lord  himself  does  not  refuse  to  make  use  of  the  same  image 
for  the  setting  forth  of  the  same  truths.  (Luke  xxii.  18,  30.)  It  is  true 
indeed  that  the  marriage  is  spoken  of  there,  and  at  Rev.  xix.  7,  as  one 
that  shall  not  take  place  till  the  end  of  the  present  age,  while  here  the  Lord 
speaks  of  it  as  already  present ;  but  the  two  statements  are  easily  recon- 
cilable, when  we  keep  in  mind  how  distinct  the  espousals  and  the  actual 
marriage  were  held  in  the  East,  and  contemplate  his  first  coming  as 
the  time  of  his  espousals,  while  not  till  his  second  coming  will  he  lead 
home  his  bride. 

At  a  fitting  time  the  king  "  sent  forth  Ids  servants^  to  call  them  that 
were  hidden  to  the  wedding'''' — we  must  presume,  a  numerous  company, 
for  in  the  corresponding  parable  of  St.  Luke,  the  giver  of  the  feast,  a  pi'i- 
vate  man  as  it  would  seem,  "bade  many."     Here  then  we  may  suppose 

*  Vitringa  {In  Apocal.,  xix.  7) :  Nuptiae  ip.sae  figurant  arctissimam  Christi  cmn 
Ecclcsia,  unionem,  fide  utrinque  dat&.,  ct  foederali  contractu  obsignatam,  ad  facien- 
dam  spiritualem  sobolem.  <iua3  orbcm  replcat.  Epuhtm  nuptialo  adumbrat  turn 
benoficia  gratiie,  qua?  vi  justitiae  Christi  Ecclesise  ad  .satietiitcm  et  hilaritatem  ex- 
hibentur,  turn  illoruni  bcneficiorum  communioncm  turn  denique  Itetitiamet  festivi- 
tatcm.  qune  cum  fruitionc  bonoruui  gratiae  conjungitur,  et  ex  ea  ad  convivas  hujus 
epuli  redundat. 

t  Augustine  {In  Ep.  1  Joh.  Trad.  2)  :  Non  quomodo  in  nuptiis  carnalibus  alii 
freqncntant  nuptias  et  alia  nubit :  in  Ecclesia,  qui  frequentant,  si  bene  fre(juentant, 
sponsa  fiunt. 

if  Tins  difficulty  would  be  altogether  escaped,  if  we  understood  the  marriage  as 
one  between  tlie  Di\nne  Word  and  the  human  Nature  — God  and  man  united  and 
making  one  Christ;  so  Augnstine  and  Gregory  the  Gvtitit  {Hmn.  ^%  in  Ecang..) 
liave  understood  it.  though  certainly  neither  to  the  exclusion  of  the  more  obvious 
meaning  suggested  by  such  passages  as  Ei)lies.  v.  24—32.  according  to  which  the 
marriage  would  be  one  between  Christ  and  liis  Church.  Gregory  shows  how  well 
the  two  interpretations  can  be  reconciled,  saying  In  hoc  Pater  regi  filio  nuptias 
fecit,  quo  ei  ]Kr  inr.arnationis  nujxfrrium  sanctam  Ecclesiam  sociavit. 

^  Technically  vocatores,  invitatores,  K\-fiTopfi,  SfiirvoKK-firopfs,  iKfarpoi.  See 
Prov.  ix.  3-6. 


182  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

still  larger  numbers  to  have  been  bidden,  even  as  the  maker  of  the  feast 
was  a  greater  person,  and  the  occasion  a  more  solemn  one.  (Compare 
Esth.  i.  3-9.)  This  second  invitation,  or  admonishment  rather,  is  quite 
according  to  Eastern  manners.  Thus  Esther  invites  Haman  to  a  ban- 
quet on  the  morrow  (Esth.  v.  8).  and  when  the  time  is  actually  arrived, 
the  chamberlain  comes  to  bring  him  to  the  banquet  (vi.  14).  Modern 
travellers  testify  to  the  same  custom  now  of  repeating  the  invitation  to  a 
great  entertainment,  at  the  moment  when  all  things  are  in  actual  readi- 
ness ;  so  that  there  is  no  reason  at  all  why  with  some  we  should  make 
"  them  that  were  hidden!''  to  mean  them  that  were  now  to  he  bidden.* 

Indeed,  deeper  reasons  than  those  that  lie  on  the  surface  of  the  para- 
ble are  against  this  ;  for  our  Lord  in  assuming  the  guests  to  have  been 
invited  long  before,  would  bring  out  that  the  new  was  not  indeed  new, 
but  rather  a  fulfilment  of  the  old:  that  he  claimed  to  be  heard,  not  as  one 
suddenly  starting  up,  and  unconnected  with  all  which  had  gone  before 
him,  but  as  himself  the  end  of  the  law,  that  to  which  it  all  had  been  tend- 
ing, the  birth  with  which  the  whole  Jewish  dispensation  had  been  preg- 
nant, and  which  at  length  gave  its  meaning  to  all.  When  he  says,  "  to 
call  tliem  that  ivere  hidden^  he  teaches  us,  as  he  would  fain  have  taught 
those  who  then  heard  him,  that  there  was  nothing  sudden  in  the  coming 
in  of  his  kingdom,  that  its  rudiments  had  a  long  while  before  been  laid, 
that  all  which  they  clung  to  as  precious  in  their  past  history  was  pro- 
phetic of  blessings  now  actually  present  to  themselves.f  The  invitation 
first  went  forth  at  the  constitution  of  the  Jewish  nation  as  God's  elect 
people,  and  ran  through  all  their  history.  It  was  taken  up  and  repeated 
by  each  succeeding  prophet,  as  he  prophesied  of  the  crowning  grace  that 
should  one  day  be  brought  to  Israel  in  the  actual  presence  in  the  midst 
of  it  of  its  Lord  and  King,  and  summoned  the  people  to  hold  themselves 
in  a  spiritual  readiness  against  that  day. 

Yet  they  never  did  more  than  thus  bid  the  guests,  for  they  only  spoke 
of  good  things  to  come  The  actual  calling  of  "  tJiem  that  were  hidden  " 
pertained  not  to  them.  John  the  Baptist  was  the  first  ib  whose  time  the 
kingdom  was  actually  present,  tlie  wedding  feast  prepared,  the  king  and 
the  king's  son  manifested,  and  the  long-invited  guests  summoned.  By  the 
first  band  of  servants  I  should  certainly  now  understand  John  and  the 
apostles  in  their  first  mission — that  which  they  accomplished  during  the 

*  Thus  Storr  (O/wjc.  Acad.,  v.  1,  p.  120)  affirms  rovs  KeKKrifievovs  may  as  well 
signify  vocandos  as  vocatos  !  Did  not  this  refute  itself  Luke  xiv.  16,  17,  would  be 
decisive  in  the  matter. 

t  See  in  this  view  the  admirable  use  which  Tertullian  makes  of  this  parable, 
or  rather  of  its  parallel  (Luke  xiv.  16),  arg-uing  ag-ainst  Marcion  (1.  4,  c.  41),  whose 
great  aim  was  to  cut  loose  the  New  Testament  from  the  Old.  So  too  Irenaeus, 
Con.  Har.,  1.  4,  c.  36. 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  183 

lifetime  of  the  Lord,  his  Incarnation  being  the  true  bridal  of  the  earth 
and  heaven.*  His  own  share  in  summoning  the  guests,  summoning 
them,  that  is,  unto  himself,  '•  Come  unto  me,"  is  naturally  in  the  parable 
kept  out  of  sight.  It  would  have  disturbed  those  proprieties  which  it 
was  needful  to  observe,  to  have  made  the  king's  son  himself  a  bearer  of 
the  invitation ;  but  yet  did  he  in  the  reality  of  his  infinite  condescension 
sustain  the  double  character,  and  he  for  whom  the  marriage  was  made, 
was  content  himself  to  be  sent  forth  to  call  the  guests  thereunto.  We 
observe  upon  this  first  occasion,  there  was  no  actual  maltreatment  of  the 
servants  sent  out;  a  general  averseness  from  the  message,  and  alienation 
from  the  messengers, — but  as  yet  no  positive  outrage — nor  was  there 
such  against  the  apostles  during  the  lifetime  of  the  Lord,t  nor  at  the 
first  against  the  Lord  himself  It  was  simply  "  they  would  not  come?'* 
"  Ye  lodl  tiot  come  to  me,  that  ye  may  have  life." 

'■'•  Again  he  sent  forth  other  servants?''  The  second  sending  forth  of 
the  servants  describes  that  renewed  invitation  to  the  Jews  which  was 
made  subsequent  to  the  Crucifixion  :  of  this,  as  was  needful,  nothing  was 
said,  for  the  parable  would  not  bear  it.  It  need  not  perplex  us  to  find 
these  spoken  of  as  '■' other  ^^  servants,  while,  in  fact,  many  of  them  were 
the  same.  In  the  first  place,  there  were  many  other  now  associated  with 
them,  Stephen  and  Barnabas  and  Paul  and  a  great  company  of  preachers. 
Those,  too,  who  were  the  same  yet  went  forth  as  new  men,  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  with  a  somewhat  altered  message,  not  preaching  generally  a 
kingdom  of  Grod,  but  preaching  now  "  Jesus  and  the  resurrection ;"  de- 
claring, which  it  may  be  observed  they  had  not  done  before,  that  all  things 
were  ready — that  all  the  obstacles  which  man's  sin  had  reared  up,  God's 
grace  had  removed  (Acts  ii.  38,39;  iii.  19-26;  iv.  12);  that  in  that 
very  blood  which  they  had  impiously  shed,  there  was  forgiveness  of  all 
sins,  and  freedom  of  access  to  God.     And  let  us  not  miss  in  the  parable 

*  These  missions  by  the  king  of  his  servants  to  summon  the  guests  (ver.  3,  4) 
have  been  sometimes  differently  understood.  Thus  Origen  applies  them  both  to 
the  sending  of  the  prophets  under  the  law ;  Jerome  makes  no  doubt  that  the  first 
mission  (ver.  3)  is  to  be  so  understood,  though  he  is  more  doubtful  about  the 
second.  So  too  Gregory  the  Groat  {Horn.  38  in  Evang.)  understands  it :  Bis  itaquo 
servos  ad  invitandum  mi.sit,  quia  Incarnationcra  Unigeniti  et  per  prophetas  dixit 
futuram,  et  per  Apostolos  nunciavit  factum.  I  am  now  persuaded  however  that 
Hilary's  is  in  the  main  the  true  explanation;  who  (Com.  in  Maith.,  in  loc.)  thus  ex- 
presses hini.self:  Servi  mi.ssi,  qui  invitatos  vocarent,  Apostoli  sunt:  eoruni  cnim 
erat  i)ropriuin,  commone  facere  eos,  quos  invitaverant  prophets).  Qui  vero  iterum 
cum  pra-cepturum  conditione  mittuntur,  Apostolici  sunt  viri  et  successores  Apos- 
toloruni. 

t  The  death  of  Jolm  cannot  be  hero  adduced  ;  for  he  by  whose  command  ho 
was  murdered  was  an  Edoniite,  not  therefore  one  of  the  invited  guests  at  ail— and 
moreover,  it  was  for  preaching  the  law,  not  the  Gospel,  that  he  died. 


184  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

or  in  its  application  the  infinite  grace  which  gives  to  the  guests  the 
opportunity  of  coming  to  a  better  mind,  and  making  good  their  first 
contempt.  The  king,  as  though  he  thought  it  possible  that  they  deferred 
coming,  as  not  being  aware  that  the  preparations  were  yet  completed,  or 
that  some  other  misunderstanding  had  found  place,  instead  of  threaten- 
ing or  rebuking,  told  his  servants  only  to  press  the  message  with  greater 
distinctness  and  instancy:  '•'•Tell  them  tvhich  are  bidden,''^  so  tell  them  that 
they  cannot  mistake,  that  every  anterior  preparation  is  made,*  and  that 
now  "rt//  things  are  ready.''''  And  exactly  thus  was  it  with  the  apostles 
after  tlie  crucifixion ;  how  willing  were  they  to  look  upon  all  that  was 
past  in  the  mildest  possible  light;  thus  Peter  (Acts  iii.  17),  "And  now, 
brethren,  I  wot  that  through  ignorance  ye  did  it;" — how  did  they  refuse 
to  dwell  upon  the  past  sin,  urging  rather  the  present  grace  ! 

But  the  servants  upon  this  second  mission  fare  worse  than  upon  the 
first.  The  guests,  when  they  heard  the  reiterated  invitation,  '•'•made 
light  of  it.,  and  xcent  tJieir  ways^  one  to  his  farm^  another  to  his  'mer- 
chandise?'' Nor  is  this  the  worst.  The  careless  disregard  of  the  honor 
vouchsafed,  which  appeared  from  the  beginning,  and  has  grown  in  some 
to  this  contemptuous  rejection  of  it,  has  ripened  in  others  to  an  absolute 
hostility  against  the  bringers  of  the  message  :  "  The  remnant  took  his 
servants^  and  entreated  tliem  spitefully^  and  sleio  them."  So  there  are 
ever  in  the  world  two  kinds  of  despisers  of  the  Gospel  of  God :  some  who 
take  the  trouble  perhaps  of  saying,  "  I  pray  thee  have  me  excused  " — 
others  in  whom  it  excites  feelings  of  a  positive  enmity.  Those  in  the 
first  class  are  again  subdivided ;  for  it  is  said  that  they  "  u-e7it  their 
ivays.,  one  to  his  farm.,  another  to  his  me^-chandise?''  The  question 
naturally  arises.  Can  we  make  a  distinction  here  ?  did  the  Lord  intend  a 
distinction  ?  Perhaps  if  we  understand  of  the  first  as  one  who  went  to 
his  estate,  which  the  word  will  perfectly  justify,  the  distinction  will  come 
more  clearly  out.  The  first  is  the  landed  proprietor,  the  second  the 
merchant ;  the  first  would  enjoy  what  he  already  possesses,  the  second 
would  acquire  what  as  yet  is  his  only  in  anticipation.  Exactly  so, 
Luke  xiv.  18,  19,  the  guest  who  has  bought  a  property  and  must  needs 
go  and  see  it,  is  one  who  has  entered  into  the  first  condition  ;  the  guest 
who  would  fain  try  his  five  yoke  of  oxen,  belongs  to  the  second.  The 
dangers  of  having  and  of  getting,  though  cognate,  are  yet  not  at  all  the 
same.  There  is  quite  difference  enough  between  them  to  account  for  the 
distinction.    One  of  the  guests  when  urged  to  come,  turned  to  that  which 

*  "  Mij  oxen  and  my  fatlings  are  kilkd."  This  would  be  a  sign  of  the  immedi- 
ate nearness  of  the  feast.  Chardin  {Voy.  en  Perse,  v.  4,  p.  48) :  On  tue  le matin  le 
mouton  et  I'agnoau  qu'on  mangera  le  soir  .  . .  Les  Persans  croient  que  la  meilleure 
chair  est  la  plus  fiaiche  tu<;e.     (See  Gen.  xviii.  7,  8;  xliii.  16;  Prov.  ix.  1-5.) 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  185 

by  his  own  or  others'  labor  he  had  got — another  to  what  he  was  hoping 
to  get.*  They  are  either  those  who  are  full,  or  are  hoping  to  be  full  of 
this  world ;  and  the  woe  which  the  Lord  pronounced,  Luke  vi.  25,  has 
come  upon  them ;  for  this  fulness  has  prevented  them  from  discovering 
their  emptiness  of  things  heavenly  ;  the  divine  hunger,  the  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  has  never  been  awakened  in  their  souls.  But 
"  tJie  remnant  took  his  servants^  and  entreated  them  sjntcfully^  and  slew 
them.^^  The  oppositions  to  the  Gospel  are  not  merely  natural,  they  are 
also  devilish.  There  are  other  evils  in  man's  heart  besides  the  worldli- 
ness  of  it,  which  are  stirred  up  by  the  word  of  the  truth.  It  wounds 
men's  pride,  it  aifronts  their  self-righteousness,  and  they  visit  on  the 
bringers  of  it  the  hate  they  bear  to  itself  Three  forms  of  outi  Age  are 
enumerated  here  ;  and  how  abundantly  do  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and 
much  else  in  the  later  Scriptures,  bear  out  all  the  three.  They  " took" 
or  laid  violent  hands  on,  "Aw  sa'vants"  (Acts  iv.  3;  v.  18;  viii.  3); 
they  '■'■entreated  them  spitepdhj''''  (Acts  v.  40;  xiv.  5,  19;  xvii.  5;  xxi. 
30;  xxiii.  2);  they  "sfef  them'''  (Acts  vii.  58;  xii.  3;  cf  Matt, 
xxiii.  34)1 

'•'•But  when  tJie  king  heard  thereof^  he  icas  ivroth."  The  insult  was  to 
him,  and  was  intended  for  him ;  as  in  every  case  where  an  ambassador 
is  outraged,  it  is  his  master  whom  it  is  intended  that  the  blow  shall 
reach.  (2  Sam.  x.)  As  such  it  was  avenged  ;  for  the  king  '■^  sent  forth 
his  armies"  that  is,  as  some  say,  his  avenging  angels,  the  armies  in 
heaven  (Rev.  xix.  14),  the  legions  that  are  at  his  bidding  (Matt.  xxvi. 
53 ;  1  Kin.  xxii.  19;  2  Sam.  xxiv.  10). |  or,  it  may  be,  the  hosts  of  Rome^ 
(Dan.  ix.  26),  which  were  equally  " his  armies"  since  even  ungodly  men 
are  men  of  Gods  hand,  by  whom  he  executes  vengeance  on  other 
wicked.    (Thus  Isai.  x.  5,  "  0  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  mine  anger."     Thus 


*  Bengel  who  is  gifted  with  snch  wonderful  skill,  rem  tangere  acu,  brings  out 
the  difft'reiice  exactly  so:  Alius  per  fals.am  avTcipKeiav,  alius  per  cupiditatem  acqui- 
rendi  detentus.  And  Gerhard  suggests,  though  with  no  great  confidence,  the 
same  explanation  {Harm.  Eva?ig.,  c.  153) :  Quid  si  per  aheuntes  ad  negotiationem 
intelligainus  eos  ipii  inliiant  opibus  adhuc  ac(iuirendis ;  per  abeuntes  ad  villam, 
qui  nialfe  delej;tantur  in  opibus  jam  ante  partis  et  acquisltis  1 

t  To  this  part  of  the  parable,  2  Cliron.  xxx.  10  siijjplies  an  interesting  parallel. 
When  lle/.ekiah  restored  the  worshii>  of  Jehovah  at  Jerusalem,  he  sent  messengers 
throughout  all  the  tribes,  inviting  all  Israel  to  share  in  the  solemn  passovcr  which 
he  was  about  to  keep,  that  is,  bidding  them  to  the  feast.  '•  So  the  posts  jjassed 
from  city  to  city  .  .  .  but  they  lauglied  them  to  scorn  and  mocked  them."  Yet  as 
guests  were  brought  in  to  the  marriage-supper,  so  in  this  case,  also,  "  divers  hum- 
bled themselves  and  came  to  Jerusalem." 

I  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  38  in  Evang.)  :  Quid  namque  sunt  ilia  Angeloriun 
agmina,  nisi  exercitus  Regis  nostri  1 

^  So  Irenajus,  Con.  Hccr.,  1.  4,  c.  36,  ^  6. 


186  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KIl^G'S  SON. 

too,  Isai.  xiii.  5;  Ezek.  xvi.  41;  Jer.  xxv.  9,  "Nebuchadnezzar,  vny 
servant")  In  fact,  the  two  explanktions  flow  one  into  the  other,  for 
when  God's  wrath  is  to  be  excuted.  the  earthly  and  visible  ministers  of 
his  judgments  and  the  unseen  armies  of  heaven  are  evermore  leagued 
together.  The  natural  eye  sees  only  those,  the  spiritual  eye  beholds  the 
other  also  behind.  It  is  ever  at  such  moments  as  it  was  with  Israel  of 
old.  (1  Chron.  xxi.  16.)  The  multitude,  to  whom  the  purged  spiritual 
eye  was  wanting,  beheld  only  the  outward  calamity,  the  wasting  pesti- 
lence, but  David  lifted  up  his  eye  and  saw  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
standing  between  the  earth  and  the  heaven,  having  a  drawn  sword  in 
his  hand.*  "  TAe  citt/  of  those  'murderers"  can  of  course  be  no  other 
than  Jerusalem,  the  central  point  of  the  Jewish  theocracy.  (Matt,  xxiii. 
34,  35  ;  Luke  xiii.  33,  34  ;  Acts  vii.  39  ;  xii.  2,  3.)  There  lies  an  awful 
threat  in  this  appellation.  It  is  t/ieir  city,  not  any  longer  the  city  of 
the  great  King,  who  owns  it  no  more  for  his  own.  With  a  similar 
threatening  Christ  says,  "  Your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate  "  (Matt, 
xxiii.  38);  '■^  your  house,"  not  mine,  for  I  no  longer  fill  it  with  my 
presence.  So  to  Moses  God  says,  "  Thy  people  have  corrupted  them- 
selves "  (Exod.  xxxii.  7);  '■'•thy  people,"  not  mine;  for  the  covenant 
between  him  and  them  was  suspended  by  their  sin. 

"  Then "  (compare  Acts  xiii.  46)  "  saith  he  to  his  servants,  The 
wedding  is  ready,  but  they  which  were  hidden  were  not  worthy"  Their 
unworthiness  consisted  in  their  rejection  of  the  invitation,  even  as  the 
worthiness  of  those  who  did  find  a  place  at  the  festival  consisted — not 
in  their  previous  state,  for  in  that  regard  they  were  most  unworthy  of 
the  honor  of  sitting  down  at  the  king's  table,  but  in  their  acceptance  of 
the  invitation.    "  Go  ye  therefore  into  the  highways,]  and  as  many  as  ye 

*  Even  the  heathen  could  understand  this.  When  Troy  was  perishing,  the 
poet  describes  how  the  multitude  saw  but  their  Grecian  enemies  engaged  in  the 
work  of  destruction  ;  but  to  Eneas,  when  his  Goddess  mother  had  opened  his  eyes, 
there  appeared  other  foes  ;  to  him 

Apparent  dirae  facies,  inimicaque  Trojas 
Numina  magna  Deum. 

t  It  seems  hard  to  determine  whether  these  5ie|o5oj  are  transitus  or  exitus 
(Passow  gives  both  meanings,  Durchgang  and  Ausgang) :  whether  the  thorough- 
fares (see  Ps.  i.  3,  LXX.,  where  the  word  is  used  for  channels  of  waters),  or  the 
outlets  leading  from  the  city  (Grotius :  Vije  extra  urbem  ducentes),  or  such  as 
issued  into  its  places  and  squares  (Kuinoel :  Compita  viarum),  or  the  points  where 
many  roads  or  streets  meet;  Chrysostom  {Himi.Qd  in  Malth.)  more  than  once  sub-, 
stitutes  TpjdSous.  (Schleusner:  Loca  ubi  plures  plat;e  concurrunt.)  All  these 
places  have  an  equal  fitness,  in  regard  of  being  places  of  resort,  where  the  servants 
might  hope  soon  to  gather  a  company.  But  we  must  not  permit  the  English  ex- 
pression, "  highteays"  to  make  us  think  of  places  in  the  country  as  contradistin- 
guished from  the  town,  whither  the  servants  were  sent ;  the  image  throughout  the 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  187 

shall Jind^  bid  to  the  marriage."  Here  the  doctrine  so  hateful  to  Jewish 
ears  (see  Acts  xxii.  21,  22),  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  by 
occasion  of  the  disobedience  of  the  Jews,  is  again  plainly  declared.  By 
the  breaking  off  of  the  natural  branches  of  the  olive,  there  shall  be  room 
made  for  the  grafting  in  of  the  wild  olive  in  their  stead  (Roi^i.  xi.)y — so 
Paul  sets  forth  the  same  truth  which  here  his  Lord  declares  under  the 
image  of  the  exclusion  of  the  guests,  who  in  the  natural  order  of  things 
would  best  become  the  wedding,  and  were  invited  to  it,  and  the  reception 
of  those  gathered  in  from  the  highways  in  their  stead.  Compare  Matt, 
viii.  10-12,  of  which  this  parable  is  only  the  ampler  unfolding. 

Hereupon  the  servants  '•  went  out  into  tJie  highways,  and  gathered 
togetlier  all  as  ma7iy  as  tliey  found,  both  bad  and  goodP  In  the  spirit  of 
this  command,  "  Philip  went  down  to  the  city  of  Samaria,  and  preached 
Christ  unto  them  "  there  (Acts  viii.  5) ;  Peter  baptized  Cornelius  and 
his  company  ;  and  Paul  declared  unto  the  men  of  Athens  how  God  now 
commanded  "  all  men  every  xvhcre  to  repent."  When  it  is  said  they 
gathered  in  '■'■bad"  as  well  as  '■'■good" — in  which  words  there  is  a  passing 
over  from  the  thing  signifying  to  the  thing  signified,  since  moral  qualities 
would  scarcely  be  attributed  to  the  guests  as  such, — we  are  not  to  see 
here  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that  one  should  hereafter  be  found  at 
the  festival  without  a  wedding  garment ;  it  is  not  to  prepare  the  way  for 
and  to  account  for  that  fact,  that  these  diflFerent  qualities  of  the  guests 
are  mentioned.  '■'■Bad"  here  is  not  equivalent  to  '■'■not  Jiaving  a  wedding 
garment"  there;  on  the  contrary,  many  were  '■'■bad"  when  invited,  who, 
through  accepting  the  invitation,  passed  into  the  number  of  the  ''■good;" 
for  here  the  beautiful  words  of  Augustine,  concerning  Christ's  love  to  his 
Church,  find  their  application,  "he  loved  her  when  she  was  foul,  that  he 
might  make  her  fair."*  Neither  may  the  terms  ^^bad  and  good"  and 
least  of  all  the  latter,  be  pressed  too  far ;  for  speaking  with  strict 
accuracy,  none  are  good  till  they  have  been  incorporated  into  the  body 
of  Christ  and  are  sharers  in  his  Spirit.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  few  will 
deny  that  there  are  different  degrees  of  moral  life,  even  anterior  to  obe- 
dience to  the  call  of  the  Gospel.  There  are  "good"  such,  for  instance, 
as  Cornelius,  or  those  Gentiles  that  were  a  law  to  themselves  (Rom.  ii. 

parable  is  of  a  city,  in  which  the  rich  and  great  and  noble,  those  who  naturally 
would  be  .selected  for  a  king's  guests,  refuse  to  come  to  his  banquet,  whereupon 
the  poor  of  the  same  city  are  brought  in  to  share  it. 

*  Feedam  aniavit  ut  pulcram  faceret, — a  thought  which  he  pursues  at  length 
elsewhere  {in  1  Ep.  Joh.  Tract.,  9),  among  other  things  saying :  Amavit  nos  prior 
qui  semi)er  est  pulcher.  Et  quales  amavit,  nisi  fuedos  et  deformes  1  Non  ideo 
tamen  ut  f<edos  dimitteret.  sed  ut  mutarot  et  ex  deformibus  pulchros  faceret 
Quomodo  erinuis  pulchri'?  amando  enm  qui  semper  est  pulcher.  Quantum  in  te 
crescit  amor,  tantiJm  crescit  pulchritude,  quia  ipsa  charitas  est  anima)  pulchritude. 


188  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

14);  and  ^^bad"  those  who  are  so  far  gone  in  moral  depravity,  that  to 
men  there  seems  no  hope  of  restoration  for  them;* — "such  were  some 
of  you,"  says  the  apostle  to  the  Corinthians,  after  enumerating  sinners 
of  the  worst  classes.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  draw-net  which  brings 
withi^  its  ample  folds  both  them  who  have  been  before  honestly  striving 
after  a  righteousness  according  to  the  law,  and  those  who  have  been 
utterly  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  Its  invitation  some  of  both  classes 
accept ;  "  T/ie  ivedding  was  furnislied  with  guests." 

This,  which  was  the  conclusion  of  the  other  and  earlier  spoken  par- 
able (Luke  xiv.  16),  is  only  the  first  act  in  the  present.  There  is  still 
another  solemn  act  of  judgment  to  follow.  Hitherto  the  parable,  with  all 
the  prophetic  hints  and  glimpses  which  it  gives  of  the  wickedness  of  men 
and  judgments  of  God,  has  been  addressed  to  the  chief  priests  and  Pha- 
risees ;  or  generally  to  the  Jewish  nation,  in  so  far  as  it  cared  not  or  as 
it  hated  to  hear  the  glad  tidings  salvation.  It  is  now  for  those  who 
have  accepted  their  portion  therein,  with  an  earnest  warning  also  for 
them.  Besides  the  separation  between  those  who  come  and  those  who 
refuse  to  come,  it  shall  be  also  tried  at  the  last  who  among  the  actual 
comers  have  walked  worthy  of  their  vocation  and  who  not;  and  accord- 
ing to  this  rule  there  shall  be  a  second  sifting  and  separation.  We 
have  had  the  judgment  on  the  avowed  foe :  that  on  the  false  friend  is 
yet  to  find  place. 

But  however  it  was  the  servants'  work  to  gather  in  the  guests  to 
the  heavenly  banquet,  it  is  not  their  office  here,  any  more  than  in  the 
parable  of  the  Tares,  to  separate  finally  and  decisively  between  the  wor- 
thy partakers  and  the  unworthy  intruders.  And  indeed  how  should  it 
be  ?  for  the  garment  which  distinguishes  these  from  those  is  worn,  not 
on  the  body,  but  on  the  heart  if  and  only  "  the  Lord  trieth  the  hearts." 
We  may  presume  that  it  pertained  to  the  dignity  of  the  king,  that  he 
should  not  appear  at  the  festival  till  all  were  assembled,  nor  indeed  till 
all  had  now  occupied  their  places  at  the  banquet ;  for  so  much  is  im- 

*  Jerome,  on  these  "  bad  and  good ;"  Inter  ipsos  quoque  Ethnicos  est  diversitas 
infinita,  quum  sciaraus  alios  esse  proclives  ad  vitia  et  ruentes  ad  mala,  alios  ob 
honcstatem  morum  virtutibus  deditos.  Augustine's  conflict  with  the  Pelagians 
would  have  hindered  him  from  expressing  himself  exactly  in  these  last  words,  and 
he  will  only  allow  these  '-good"  to  be  minus  mali  than  the  others.  Yet  he  too  is 
most  earnest  against  the  abuse  of  these  words,  which  should  argue  for  allowing 
men  to  come  to  baptism  without  having  faithfully  renounced,  as  far  as  human  eye 
could  see,  all  their  past  ungodliness ;  for  that  were  to  make  the  servants  of  the 
householder  themselves  the  sowers  of  the  tares.  {De  P'uh  et  Oper.,  c.  17.)  Am- 
brose {Exp.  in  LAic,  1.  7,  c.  202) :  Jubet  bonos  et  malos  introire  ut  bonos  augeat, 
maloi'um  aftectum  in  meliora  commutet :  ut  compleretur  illud  quod  lectum  est : 
Tunc  lupi  et  agni  simul  pascentur. 

t  Augustine :  Vestis  quippe  ilia  in  corde,  non  in  came,  inspiciebatur. 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  189 

plied  in  the  word  by  which  now  the  guests  are  described.*  But  then, 
when  he  "  caine  m  to  see  the  gttcsts^  he  saw  tlvere  a  man  which  had  not  on 
a  wedding  garment^  Among  the  guests,  ranged  in  order  and  splendid- 
ly apparelled,  his  eye  at  once  detected  one  who  lacked  the  apparel  that 
became  a  guest  admitted  to  a  royal  festival.  Him  he  addresses,  as  yet 
with  a  gentle  compellation,  for  it  was  yet  to  be  seen  whether  he  could 
ezplaiu  away  his  apparent  contempt ;  •'  Friend,  fiow  earnest  tJwu  in 
hither,  not  having^  a  wedding  garinent  ?"  But  he  could  not ;  "  lie  was 
speechkss." 

But  why  could  he  not  answer  that  it  was  unreasonable  to  expect  of 
him,  brought  in  of  a  sudden  and  without  notice  from  the  highways,  to  be 
furnished  with  such — that  he  was  too  poor  to  provide, — or  that  no  time 
had  been  allowed  him  to  go  home  and  fetch, — such  a  garment?  Some, 
willing  to  get  rid  of  any  semblance  of  harshness  in  the  after  conduct  of 
the  king,  maintain  that  it  was  customary  in  the  East,  when  kings  or 
great  personages  made  an  entertainment,  that  costly  dresses  should  be 
by  them  presented  to  the  guests.  Such  a  custom,  they  say,  is  here  tacitly 
assumed,  so  that  this  guest  could  only  have  now  appeared  not  having 
such  a  garment,  because  he  had  rejected  it  when  offered  to  him ;  and 
had  thus  both  despised  the  grace  done  to  him  in  the  gift,  and  had  also 
by  that  rejection  plainly  declared  that  he  counted  his  ordinary  work 
day  apparel,  soiled  and  stained  as  it  may  probably  have  been,  sufficiently 
good  in  which  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  being  guilty  thus 
of  a  twofold  offence.  Ernesti,  however,  and  others,  have  denied  that 
any  certain  traces  of  such  a  custom  are  any  where  to  be  found,  affirm- 
ing that  the  only  notice  which  we  have  of  any  thing  like  it,  is  the  mod- 
ern custom  of  clothing  with  a  caftan  those  that  are  admitted  into  the 
presence  of  the  Sultan. 

But.  while  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  passage  (Judg.  xiv.  13) 
often  adduced  in  proof,  fails  to  prove  any  thing :  and  that,  perhaps,  dis- 

*  Tous  avaKtififvovs.  In  the  Vulgate,  Discumbentes ;  Wiclif,  The  men  sitting  at 
the  meat. 

t  We  may  observe  that  it  is  the  subjective,  and  not  the  objective,  particle  of 
negation,  which  is  here  used,  fi.i\  and  not  oii — ni\  ^x'^"  (v^vfxa  yd.fj.ov.  '■  not  having 
(and  knowing  that  thou  hadst  not)  the  wedding  garment;"  with  a  consciousness 
that  it  was  wanting. — The  (i/Svfia  ydnov  is  not  exactly  the  ifudTiov  vvjitpiKSv  of  Plu- 
tarch {Aviator.  10).  for  that  is  the  garment  not  of  the  guests,  but  of  the  bride- 
groom ;  nor  yet  the  iabi)^  vvfiipiKri  of  Chariton.  1,  p.  6,  which  is  that  of  the  bride. 
(Bkckkr's  ChariLks  v.  2.  p.  467.)  Yet  there  may  lie  under  the  use  of  this  phrase, 
which  seems  at  first  fitter  to  set  forth  the  array  of  the  bridegroom  than  that  of  the 
invited  guests  that  the  true  adornment  of  each  of  these  at  the  spiritual  marriage 
is  identical  with  that  of  the  bridegroom:  from  him  they  have  it;  it  is  of  the  same 
kind  as  that  which  he  wears  himself ;  for  they  who  arc  rightly  arrayed  have  put  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  aud  as  he  is,  so  are  they  in  the  world. 


190  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

tinct  evidence  is  not  forthcoming  of  any  such  practice  as  that  assumed, 
yet  we  know  enough  of  the  undoubted  customs  of  the  East  to  make  it 
extremely  probable  that  presents  of  dresses  were  often  distributed 
among  the  guests  at  a  marriage  festival,  especially  one  like  the  present, 
celebrated  with  great  pomp  and  magnificence ;  so  that  our  Lord's  hear- 
ers, to  whom  those  customs  must  have  been  familiar,  would  have  un- 
consciously supplied  the  gap  in  the  narration,  and  taken  for  granted 
such  a  gift  going  before,  especially  when  they  found  so  severe  a  pen- 
alty inflicted  upon  his  guest,  for  a  want  which  otherwise  he  could  not 
well  have  avoided.  We  know  in  the  first  place,  that  it  was  part  of  the 
state  and  magnificence  of  kings  and  wealthy  persons  in^the  East,  to  have 
great  store  of  costly  dresses  laid  up,  as  at  the  present  day  a  great  portion 
of  their  wealth  is  very  commonly  invested  in  numerous  changes  of 
costly  apparel.  (Job  xxviii.  16;  Isai.  iii.  6;  Jam.  v.  2 ;  2  Kin.  x.  22.)* 
Keeping  this  in  mind,  we  need  not  suppose  that  the  number  of  guests, 
however  great,  would  have  created  any  embarrassment.  We  know 
moreover  that  costly  dresses  were  often  given  as  honorable  presents, 
marks  of  especial  favor  (Gren.  xlv.  22 ;  1  Sam.  xviii.  4 ;  2  Kin.  v.  5 ; 
Dan.  V.  7 ;  Est.  vi.  8  ;  1  Mace.  x.  20) ;  that  they  were  then,  as  now,  the 
most  customary  gifts; — and  marriage  festivals  (Est.  ii.  18)  and  other 
occasions  of  festal  rejoicing  (2  Sam.  vi.  19)  were  naturally  those  upon 
which  gifts  were  distributed  with  the  largest  hand.  If  the  gift  took  the 
form  of  costly  raiment,  it  would  reasonably  be  expected  that  it  should 
be  worn  at  once,  as  part  of  the  purpose  of  the  distribution  would  else 
be  lost,  which  was  to  testify  openly  the  magnificence  and  liberality  of  the 
giver,  and  also  to  add  to  the  splendor  and  glory  of  the  festal  time, — not 
to  say  that  the  rejection  of  a  gift,  or  the  appearance  of  a  slight  put  upon 
it,  is  ever  naturally  esteemed  as  a  slight  and  contempt  not  of  that  gift 
only,  but  also  of  the  giver,  f 

*  The  story  told  by  Horace  of  the  five  thousand  mantles  which  Lucullus,  on  ex- 
amining his  wardrobe,  found  that  he  possessed,  is  well  known;  and  this  extract 
from  Chardin  {Voy.  en  Perse,  v.  3,  p.  230,  Langles'  ed.),  a  traveller  of  whom  all 
later  inquirers  into  Eastern  customs  join  in  praising  the  accuracy  and  extent  of  in- 
formation, may  be  accepted  in  proof  that  the  number  of  the  garments  needed  would 
have  been  readily  at  hand  :  On  ne  sauroit  croire  la  d^pense  que  fait  le  roi  de  Perse 
pour  ces  presens-1^.  Le  nombre  des  habits  qu'il  donne  est  infini.  On  en  tient 
toujours  ses  garde-robes  pleines.  On  les  tient  dans  les  magazins  s6par^s  par  assort- 
iment. 

t  So  strongly  is  this  felt,  that  we  are  not  without  example  in  the  modern  his- 
tory of  the  East  (and  Eastern  manners  so  little  change  that  modern  examples  are 
nearly  as  good  as  ancient),  of  a  vizier  having  lost  his  life,  through  this  very  failing 
to  wear  a  garment  of  honor  sent  to  him  by  the  king.  Chardin  mentions  the  cir- 
cumstances ; — the  officer  through  whose  hands  the  royal  robe  was  to  be  forwarded, 
out  of  spite  sent  in  its  stead  a  plain  habit.    The  vizier  would  not  appear  in  the  city 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  191 

But  in  addition  to  the  aflPront  of  rejecting  the  gift,  supposing  it  to  be 
granted  that  such  a  gift  going  before  may  be  safely  assumed,  this  guest 
was  guilty  of  a  further  affront  in  appearing  at  the  festival  in  unsuitable, 
probably  in  mean  and  sordid,  apparel.  Even  with  us  there  are  occa- 
sions when  such  conduct  would  be  felt  as  manifesting  a  serious  lack  of 
respect ;  much  more  among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  especially  those  of 
the  East,  where  outward  symbols  have  a  significance  so  far  greater  than 
with  us,  would  such  an  omission  as  that  whereof  this  guest  was  guilty, 
be  felt  as  a  grievous  aflFront  and  insult*  to  the  person  in  whose  honor 

arrayed  in  this,  lest  it  should  be  taken  as  an  evidence  that  he  was  in  disgrace  at 
court,  and  put  on  in  its  stead  a  royal  habit,  the  gift  of  the  late  king,  and  in  that 
made  his  public  entry  into  the  city.  Wlien  this  was  known  at  court,  they  declared 
the  vizier  a  dog.  that  he  had  disdainfully  thrown  away  the  royal  apparel,  saying,  I 
have  no  need  of  Sha  Scfi's  habits.  Their  account  incen.sed  the  king,  who  severely 
felt  the  affront,  and  it  cost  the  vizier  his  life.  (Burder's  Orient.  Liter.,  v.  1,  p.  94. 
Cf  Herodotus,  1.  9,  c.  111.  for  an  exain{)le  of  the  manner  in  which  the  rejecting  of 
a  monarch's  gift  Avas  resented.) — Olearius  (7Vare/s,  p.  214),  gives  an  accoimt  of 
himself  with  the  ambassadors  whom  he  accompanied,  being  invited  to  the  table  of 
the  Persian  king.  He  goes  on  to  say,  "  It  was  told  us  by  the  mehmandar,  that  we 
according  to  their  usage  must  hang  the  s[)lendid  vests  that  were  sent  us  from  the 
king  over  our  dresses,  and  so  appear  in  his  presence.  The  ambassadors  at  first  re- 
fused ;  but  the  mehmandar  urged  it  so  earnestly,  alleging,  as  also  did  others,  that 
the  omission  would  greatly  displease  the  king,  since  all  other  envoys  observed  such 
a  custom,  that  at  last  they  consented,  and  hanged,  as  did  we  also,  the  splendid 
vests  over  their  shoulders,  and  so  the  cavalcade  proceeded."  This  passage,  besides 
its  value  as  showing  us  how  the  rejection  of  the  garment  of  honor,  or  rather  the 
failing  to  appear  in  it,  would  be  felt  as  an  insult,  clears  away  any  difficulty  Avhich 
might  have  occurred  to  any  from  the  apparent  unfitness  of  the  king's  palace  as  a 
place  for  changing  of  apparel.  In  fact,  there  was  strictly  speaking  no  such  chang- 
ing of  apparel,  for  the  garment  of  honor  was  either  a  vest  drawn  over  the  other 
garments,  or  a  mantle  hung  on  the  shoulders.  Schulz,  in  his  Travels,  describes 
that  given  to  him,  as  "a  long  robe  with  loose  sleeves,  which  hang  down  (for  the 
arm  is  not  put  into  them),  the  white  ground  of  which  is  goat's  hair,  mixed  with 
some  silver,  but  the  flowers  woven  in  are  of  gold-colored  silk;"  and  his  account  of 
the  necessity  of  putting  it  on  before  appearing  in  the  presence  of  the  Sultan,  agrees 
with  that  given  by  the  earlier  traveller.  (Rosenmuller's  Altc  und  Neue  Morgcnl., 
V.  5,  p.  76.) 

*  Irenaeus  then  has  exactly  seized  the  right  point  when  hf  says  {Con.  Hccr.,  1. 
4,  c.  36,  ()  6) :  Eum,  qui  non  habet  indumentum,  nuptiarum  hoc  est,  contemptorcm. 
Compare  with  this  the  exceeding  stress  which  Cicero  lays,  in  his  charges  against 
Yatinius  {In  Valin..  12,  13),  on  the  fact  of  the  latter  having  once  ai)i>eared  clad  in 
black  at  a  great  and  solemn  festival  (sui)plicatio) — how  much  of  wanton  indignity 
and  insult  he  saw  in  it,  both  towards  the  giver  of  the  feast,  and  also  towards  the 
other  guests.  "  Who  ever,"  he  asks,  "  even  in  a  time  of  domestic  grief  appeared 
at  a  supper  thus  arrayed  in  black  1"  and  we  learn  from  that  i)a.ssage,  as  from  many 
others,  that  none  but  white  garments,  which,  however,  would  afford  great  room  for 
magnificence,  were  considered  becoming  for  a  festival.  (Sec  Beckers  Charikles, 
Y.  2,  p.  469.)    It  was  the  same  among  the  Hebrews,  for  one  exhorting  to  continual 


X92  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

the  more  splendid  and  becoming  apparel  ought  to  have  been  put  on ; 
and,  of  course,  the  more  honorable  the  person  the  more  serious  would  be 
the  offence.  So  that,  though  others  have  been  forward  to  say  something 
in  this  guest's  behalf, — as  that  he  could  not  help  appearing  as  he  did,  or 
that  Ijis  fault  was  after  all  but  a  slight  one, — he  did  not  feel  that  he  had 
any  thing  to  say  for  himself;  -^  Ilc  tvas  speechless"  or  literally,  his  mouth 
was  stopped,  he  was  gagged,*  with  no  plea  to  allege  for  his  contemptu- 
ous behavior ;  he  stood  self-condemned,  and  judgment  therefore  imme- 
diately proceeded  against  him.  "  Tlieti  said  the  Jdiig  to  tlie  sen-vants^ 
or  rather  to  the  ministering  attendants,  "  Bind  him  Imnd  and  foot  ^  and 
take  hhn  away,  and  cast  him  into  outer  darkness^  Within  the  palace 
was  light  and  joy,  but  without  it  was  cold  and  darkness ; — into  this  the 
unworthy  guest,  with  no  power  of  resisting  the  fulfilment  of  the  decree, 
for  his  hands  and*  feet  were  first  bound,  was  to  be  cast — and  there  for 
him,  under  the  sense  of  his  shame,  and  loss  and  exclusion  from  the  glo- 
rious festival,  would  be  "  weepvig  and  gnashing  of  teeth." 

This  brings  the  parable  to  an  end  according  to  the  letter,  yet  is  there 
much  in  this  latter  part  which  demands  an  accurate  inquiry.  When, 
it  may  first  be  asked,  does  the  king  come  in  to  see,  or  to  scrutinize,  the 
guests  ?  Not  certainly  exclusively  in  the  day  of  final  judgment,  though 
indeed  most  signally  then.  At  every  other  judgment  whereby  hypo- 
crites are  revealed,  or  self-deceivers  laid  bare  to  themselves  or  to  others, 
the  king  enters  in  to  see,  or  rather,  diligently  to  regard,t  the  assembled 
guests;}: — at  every  time  of  trial,  which  is  also  in  its  nature  a  time  of  sep- 
aration, a  time  when  the  thoughts  of  many  hearts  are  laid  bare : 
though  for  the  day  of  the  last  judgment  the  complete  and  final  separa- 


memment  and  festal  gladness  exclaims.  "Let  thy  garments  be  always  white" 
(Eccles.  ix.  8),  that  is,  keep  a  continual  feast ; — so  we  read  that  white  robes  were 
given  to  the  souls  under  the  altar  (Rev.  vi.  11),  a  pledge  to  them,  that  though  kept 
waiting  a  while,  they  should  yet  in  a  little  season  be  admitted  to  the  marriage-sup- 
per of  the  Lamb  ;  and  the  bride  is  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and  white.  (Rev. 
xix.  8.) 

*  'EftfidSni,  from  <(>iiji.6s=  eiriffrSiuov,  a  gag.  Chrysostom  admirably  explains  it, 
KaT€Kpivev  iavrSv.  Such  gags  (in  Latin,  camus)  were  actually  in  use,  not  merely  for 
beasts,  but  sometimes  for  rebellious  slaves,  or  criminals  on  their  way  to  execution. 
(See  Schoettgen's  Hor.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  241,  and  the  Parcsm.  Grceci,  Oxf.  1636,  p.  41.) 
The  word  is  used  in  its  literal  sense,  1  Tim.  v.  18. 

t  Qfdonai.  which  is  the  word  here,  Schleusner  explains :  Fixis  ac  intentis  oculis 
aspicio  et  intuoor  ad  rem  aliquam  considerandam  et  dijudicandam.  In  the  Vul- 
gate, Ut  rlderct  discumbentes  :  the  old  Italic  had  better,  Ut  inspiceret  discumben- 
tes. 

X  Augustine :  Intrat  Deus  judicio,  qui  foris  manet  tolerando :  and  the  Aud. 
Oper.  Imperf. :  Tunc  regem  ingredi,  quando  Deus  tentat  homines,  ut  appareat 
quantum  quisque  virtutis  habeat,  et  an  loco,  quern  in  Ecclesift,  tenet,  dignus  sit. 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  193 

tion  is  of  course  reserved,  and  then  all  that  has  been  partially  fulfilling 
in  one  and  another  will  be  completely  fulfilled  in  all. 

Some  would  not  leave  out  of  sight  the  singleness  of  the  guest  with- 
out the  wedding  garment,  but  seek  to  hold  it  fast  in  the  interpretation. 
They  have  suggested  that  Judas  may  perhaps  be  immediately  pointed 
out.*  It  is  certainly  not  impossible  that  a  gracious  Lord,  who  suffers 
none  to  perish  without  warning,  may  have  meant  a  merciful  warning 
for  him  here.  This,  at  any  rate,  were  a  more  tolerable  supposition 
than  that  of  Vitringa,  Cocceius,  and  others,t  of  the  historico-prophet- 
ical  school,  to  wit,  that  it  is  the  man  of  sin,  by  whom  they  understand 
the  Pope.  It  is  hardly,  however,  probable  that  any  single  person  is  in- 
tended, but  rather  under  this  one  a  great  multitude:  for  the  "/ez<;" 
presently  said  to  be  '■  chosen"  in  comparison  to  the  "  many  called'''' 
would  seem  to  imply  that  there  had  been  a  great  sifting.  Why  these 
many  excluded  should  be  here  represented  as  a  single  person  has  been 
explained  in  different  ways.  Townson  instances  it  as  an  example  of 
what  he  happily  calls  '•'•the  lenity  of  supposition"  which  finds  place  in 
our  Lord's  parables ;  as  he  instances  in  like  manner  there  being  but  one. 
servant  who  failed  to  turn  his  lord's  money  to  account.  Gerhard  gives 
an  ingenious  reason, — that  "  if  many  had  been  thrust  out  from  the  mar- 
riage, the  nuptial  festivities  would  have  seemed  to  have  been  disturbed." 
But  he  is  on  a  truer  track,  when  he  observes  how  the  fact  of  his  being 
but  one,  brings  the  matter  home  to  every  man  :  '•  So  diligent  and  exact 
will  be  the  future  scrutiny,  that  not  so  much  as  one  in  all  that  great 
multitude  of  men,  shall  on  the  last  day  escape  the  piercing  eyes  of  tho 
Judge. "I  Nor  is  there  any  difiiculty  in  thus  contemplating  the  whole 
multitude  of  evil-doers  as  a  single  person.  For  as  the  righteous  are  one 
being  gathered  under  their  one  head,  which  is  Christ,  so  the  congrega 
tion  of  the  wicked  are  one,  being  gathered  also  under  their  one  head, 
which  is  Satan.     The  mystical  Babylon  is  one  city  no  less  than  the 

*  Thus  Pseudo-Athanasius  (£)e  Parab.  Script.),  and  in  later  times  "Weisse 
{Evans;.  Gesch.,  v.  2,  p.  114). 

t  As  GiRTLER,  Syst.  TliMol.  Proph.,  p.  676.  He  finds  a  confirmation  of  this 
view  in  the  fact,  tliat  the  man  is  addressed  as  IraTpe :  Antichristus  singulariter  est 
iralpos.  vicariura  illius  so  vonditans,  et  solio  ejus  solium  nequitiaj  associans ! — Tlie 
Jews  have  a  curious  tradition  about  E.sau,  who  is  their  standing  type  of  Antichrist, 
that  he  will  be  such  a  guest  thrust  out  from  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  is  found  in  the 
Jerusalem  Talmud,  and  is  as  follows  :  "  Esau  the  wicked  will  veil  himself  with  his 
raantle,  and  sit  among  the  righteous  in  Paradise  in  the  world  to  come ;  and  the 
holy  blessed  God  will  draw  him  and  bring  him  out  from  thence,  which  is  the  sense 
of  those  words.  Obad.  4,  6." 

:}:  Cajetan  the  .same :  Subtilis  discretio  in  tanta,  niultitudinc  dcscribitur ;  quia 
enim  ita,  onmes  Deus  vidct  ut  singulorum  singillatim  curam  habeat,  ide6  unus  de- 
scribitur  visus  homo. 

13 


194  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

mystical  Jerusalem.     There  is  a  kingdom  of  darkness  as  well  as  a 
kingdom  of  God.* 

But  concerning  the  wedding  garment  itself,  it  has  been  abundantly 
disputed  what  spiritual  grace  or  gift  he  lacked,  who  was  lacking  in  this. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  Romanists  have  been  eager  to  press  this  pas- 
sage into  their  service,  in  the  controversy  concerning  the  relative  value 
of  faith  and  charity.  But  when  they  assert  that  it  must  have  been 
charity  in  which  this  guest  was  deficient,  and  not  faith, — for  that  he  had 
faith,  since  he  would  not  have  been  present  at  the  feast  at  all  unless 
externally  a  believer,  they  are  merely  taking  advantage  of  the  double 
meaning  of  the  word  faith,  and  playing  oiF  the  occasional  use  of  it  as  a 
bare  assent  to  the  truth,  against  St.  Paul's  far  deeper  use  of  the  word, — 
and  this  most  unfairly,  for  they  must  know  that  it  is  only  in  the  latter 
sense  of  the  word  that  any  would  attribute  this  guest's  exclusion  to  his 
wanting  faith.  Were  it  needful  to  decide  absolutely  for  one  or  other  of 
these  interpretations  of  the  wedding  garment,  I  would  far  sooner  accept 
the  other,  as  infinitely  the  deepest  and  truest,  since  the  flower  may  be 
said  to  be  contained  in  the  root,  but  not  the  root  in  the  flower,  and  so 
charity  in  faith,  but  not  faith  in  charity.f  There  is  however  no  need 
to  decide  for  either  interpretation,  so  as  to  exclude  the  other.  The  great 
teachers  in  the  early  Church  did  not  put  themselves  in  contradiction  to 
one  another,  when  some  of  them  asserted  that  what  the  intruder  was  de- 
ficient in  was  charity,  and  others  faith ;  nay,  the  same  writer,:}:  without 


*  Augustine  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixi.  4)  :  Levatus  est  de  convivio  et  missus  in  poenas 
nescio  quis  homo  in  tam  magna,  turba,  recumbentiura.  Sed  tanien  Dominus  volens 
ostendere  unimi  ilium  hominem,  unum  corpus  esse  quod  constat  ex  multis,  ubi 
jussit  cum  projici  furas,  et  mitti  in  debitas  poenas,  subjecit  continuo,  Multi  enim 
sunt  Yocati,  pauci  vero  electi  .  .  .  Qui  sunt  electi.  nisi  qui  remanserunt  ?  Projecto 
uno,  electi  remanserunt.  Quomodo,  projecto  uno  de  multis,  pauci  electi  nisi  in  illo 
uno  multi  1  See  also  Con.  Don.,  post  Coll.,  c.  20.  We  have  just  the  reverse  of  this 
1  Cor.  ix.  24.  There  the  whole  number  of  the  elect  are  included  in  the  "  on^  that 
recciveth  the  prize." 

■f  Ignatius  {Ad  Eplics.,  14)  calls  the  twain,  apxh  C'^'js  koI  t4\os  •  apxri  f-tv  iriffri?, 
T(\os  Be  aydirrj. 

■^  Thus  Ambrose  (De  Fide,  1.  4,  c.  1)  speaks  of  the  nuptiale  fidei  vestimentum 
— while  elsewhere  (De  Pcenit.,  I.  1,  c.  6)  he  says:  Hie  rejicitur  qui  non  habet  ves- 
tem  nuptialera,  hoc  est,  amictum  caritatis,  velamen  gratiag  ; — and  again  uniting  his 
two  former  expositions  (Exp.  in  Luc,  1.  7,  c.  204) :  Yestem  nuptialem,  hoc  est, 
fidem  et  caritatem.  In  the  same  way  Augustine  (Serm.  xc.)  joins  them  both  : 
Habetc  fidcm  cum  dilectione.  Ista  est  vestis  nuptialis.  The  A^tct.  Oper.  Imperf. : 
Nuptiale  vestimentum  est  fides  vera  qua?  est  per  Jesum  Christum  et  justitiam  ejus ; 
see  also  Basil  (o?i  Isai.  ix.)  for  a  like  interi>rctation.  Yet  no  one  would  denj'  the 
other  to  be  the  side  upon  which  the  Fathers  more  frequently  contemplate  the  wed- 
ding garment,  as  charity,  or  sanctity.  Thus  Ironteus  (Con.  Har.,  1.  4,  c.  86,  %  6) :  Qui 
vocati  ad  cwnam  Dei.  propter  malam  convcrsationem  non  perceperunt  Spiritum 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  196 

feeling  that  there  was  aught  needing  to  be  reconciled,  would  in  one  place 
give  the  one  interpretation,  and  elsewhere  the  other.  For  what  this 
guest  lacked  was  righteousness,  both  in  its  root  of  faith  and  its  flower  of 
charity.  He  had  not,  according  to  the  pregnant  image  of  Paul,  here 
peculiarly  appropriate. — "  put  on  Christ ;" — in  which  putting  on  of 
Christ,  both  faith  and  charity  are  included, — faith  as  the  power  putting 
on,  charity  or  holiness  as  the  thing  put  on.*  By  faith  we  recognize  a 
righteousness  out  of  and  above  us,  and  which  yet  is  akin  to  us,  and 
wherewith  our  spirits  can  be  clothed,  which  righteousness  is  in  Christ, 
who  is  the  Lord  our  Righteousness.  And  this  righteousness  by  the 
appropriative  and  assimilative  power  of  faith  we  also  make  ours  ;  we  are 
clothed  upon  with  it,  so  that  it  becomes,  in  that  singularly  expressive 
term,  our  habit^] — the  righteousness  imputed  has  become  also  a  right- 


Sanctum  ;  and  Hilary  ;  Vcstitus  nuptialis  est  gloria  Spiritfts  Sancti  et  candor  habi- 
tus coelfstis,  qui  bonai  intfrrogationis  coiifessione  .siisce])tus  usque  in  cajtum  rogni 
coeloruin  immaculatus  et  integer  reservatur.  So  Gregory  the  Great  Horn.  38  in 
Evang.  Yet  Grotiiis  affirms  too  much  when  he  saj's  :  Ita  veteres  magno  consensu 
ad  hunc  locum.  And  this  is  the  predominant,  though  not  I  think  the  exclusive, 
sense  given  to  it  in  our  Exhortation  to  the  Holy  Communion  ;  with  which  compare 
Chrysostom,  Horn.  3,  in  Epkes.,  quoted  by  Bingham  {Christ,.  Antl.,  b.  15,  c.  4,  <^  2). 

*  Even  so  Gerhard,  to  whose  most  useful  collection  of  passages  I  have  been 
very  much  indebted  in  this  parable,  explains  it :  Vestis  nuptialis  Christus  est,  qui 
et  sponsus  et  cibus  est  in  his  nuptiis.  Christum  autem  induimus  turn  fide  ejus 
meritum  apprehendendo,  ut  nuditas  nostra  coram  Dei  judicio  ipsius  justitia.  tan- 
quam  j)retiosa,  veste  tegatur,  tum  sancla  vitcz  canversatioiie,  qua,  ipsius  vestigiis  in- 
sistimus  (Rom.  xiii.  14).  cCim  Christus  non  solCini  nobis  datus  sit  in  donum.  sed 
etiam  proi)ositus  in  cxemplum ; — and  Jerome's  words  are  remarkable :  Vestem 
nuptialem,  hoc  est,  vestem  supercoclestis  hominis, — as  he  explains  the  sordid  gar- 
ment as  veteris  hominis  exuvias. — One  might  here  bring  forward  as  illustrative  a 
passage  from  the  Shepherd  of  Hennas,  1.  3,  sim.  9,  c.  13.  He  sees  in  his  vision  some 
virgins,  and  asks  who  they  are ;  it  is  answered  that  they  represent  the  chief  Christian 
virtues :  Spiritus  sancti  sunt,  non  aliter  cnim  homo  potest  in  regnum  Dei  intrare  nisi 
hae  induerint  eum  veste  sua,.  Etenim  nil  proderit  tibi  accipere  nomen  filii  Dei,  nisi 
etiam  et  vestem  earum  acceperis  ab  eis. 

t  This  image  runs  remarkably  through  the  whole  of  Scripture,  its  frequent  use 
being  a  witness  for  its  peculiar  fitness.  Thus  we  are  bidden  to  put  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  (Rom.  xiii.  14),  to  put  off  the  old,  to  put  on  the  new,  man  (Col.  iii. 
10 ;  Ephes.  iv.  22),  to  put  on  the  various  pieces  of  the  panoply  of  God  (Ephes.  vi. 
13-16  ;  1  Thess.  v.  8) ;  baptism  is  a  putting  on  of  Christ  (Gal.  iii.  27).  See  fur- 
ther. Rom.  xiii.  12;  Ezek.  xvi.  10;  Isai.  Ixi.  10;  Sirac.  vi.  31;  and  Schoettgen 
{Hor.  Hh.,  V.  1,  p.  699)  shows  that  the  mystery  of  putting  on  a  righteousness  from 
above  was  not  wholly  hidden  from  the  Jews — many  of  the  passages  which  he 
quotes  being  truly  remarkable.  The  figure  has  passed  on  to  the  heavenly  king- 
dom ;  as  grace  is  put  on  here,  so  glory  there.  "He  that  ovcrcomefh.  tlie  same 
shall  be  clothed  in  white  raiment."  (Rev.  iii.  5  ;  iv.  4 ;  vi.  11 ;  vii.  9 ;  2  Esd.  ii.  39, 
45.)  In  the  book  of  Enoch  these  garments  are  called  vcstes  vita3.  See;  Eisknmkn- 
ger's  Eidd.  Judenthum  (v.  2,  p.  310),  where  it  is  said  of  the  angels,  that  according 


196  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON. 

eousness  infused,  and  is  in  us  charity  or  holiness,  or  more  accurately 
still,  constitutes  the  complex  of  all  Christian  graces  as  they  abide  in  the 
man  and  show  themselves  in  his  life. 

The  wedding  garment  then  is  righteousness  in  its  largest  sense,  the 
whole  adornment  of  the  new  and  spiritual  man, — including  the  faith 
without  which  it  is  impossible  to  please  God,  and  the  holiness  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  him,  or,  like  this  guest,  shall  only  see  him  to 
perish  at  his  presence: — it  is  the  faith  which  is  the  root  of  all  graces,  the 
mother  of  all  virtues,  and  it  is  likewise  those  graces  and  those  virtues 
themselves.  Let  us  contemplate  this  guest  as  a  self-righteous  person, 
who  is  making  and  trusting  in  a  righteousness  of  his  own,  instead  of 
believing  in  a  righteousness  of  Christ's,  imputed  and  imparted, — or  let 
us  see  in  him  a  more  ordinary  sinner,  who  with  the  Christian  profession 
and  privileges  is  yet  walking  after  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  in  unholiness 
and  sin.  in  either  case  the  image  holds  good  ; — he  is  rejecting  something, 
even  the  true  robe  of  his  spirit,  which  has  been  freely  given  to  him  at  his 
baptism.*  and  which  if  he  has  since  let  go,  he  may  yet,  on  the  strength 
of  that  gift,  freely  at  any  moment  claim ; — he  is  a  despiser,  counting 
himself  good  enough  merely  as  he  is  in  himself,  in  the  flesh  and  not  in 
the  spirit,  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  God.  But  a  time  arrives  when 
evei-y  man  will  discover  that  he  needs  another  covering,  another  array 
for  his  soul.  It  is  woe  unto  him,  who  like  this  guest  only  discovers  it 
when  it  is  too  late  to  provide  himself  with  such ;  and  then  suddenly 
stands  confessed  to  himself  in  all  his  moral  nakedness  and  defilement. 
It  was  the  king's  word  which  struck  the  intruder  speechless — so  it  will 
be  the  light  of  God  shining  round  and  shining  in  upon  the  sinner,  which 
will  at  the  last  day  reveal  to  him  all  the  hidden  things  of  his  heart,  all 
that  evil,  of  the  greater  part  of  which  he  has  hitherto  wilfully  chosen  to 
be  ignorant,  but  of  which  now  he  can  remain  ignorant  no  longer.  We 
may  well  understand  how  he  also,  like  the  unworthy  guest,  will  be 
speechless,  that  however  forward  he  may  have  been  in  other  times  to 
justify  himself,  in  that  day  his  mouth  will  be  stopped ;  he  will  not  even 
pretend  to  ofi'er  any  excuse,  or  to  plead  any  reason  why  judgment  should 
not  proceed  against  him  at  once. 

The  ministering  attendants  here,  who  are  different  both  in  name  and 
oflice  from  the  servants  who  invited  and  brought  in  the  guests,!  can  be 


to  the  Jewish  tradition  they  strip  off  the  grave-clothes  from  every  one  who  enters 
Paradise,  and  clothe  liira  in  white  and  glistering  raiment. 

*  See  one  of  Schleiermacher's  Tanfreden.  in  his  Prcdigten,  v.  4,  p.  787. 

f  Those  were  ^ovKoi,  these  are  ^iclkovoi.  (John  ii.  5,  9.)  They  here  appear  as 
lictors — that  name,  from  ligare,  having  allusion  to  this  very  function  of  binding  the 
hands  and  feet  of  c  ndenmed  criminals. 


I 


THE  MAKRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  197 

no  other  than  the  angels  who  "  shall  gather  out  of  his  kingdom  all  things 
that  offend,  and  them  that  do  inquity."  (Matt.  xiii.  4 1,  49 ;  Luke  xix.  24.) 
These  are  bidden  to  '■'■bind  him  hand  and  foot^''  which  by  some  is  made  to 
mean  that  upon  the  sinner  the  night  is  come,  in  which  no  man  can  work, 
that  for  him  all  opportunity  of  doing  better  is  gone  by;  though  I  should 
rather  see  in  it  the  sign  of  the  helplessness  to  which  in  a  moment  every 
proud  striver  against  God  is  reduced.*  The  hands  by  the  aid  of  which 
resistance,  the  feet  by  whose  help  escape,  might  have  been  meditated,  are 
alike  deprived  of  all  power  and  motion.  (Acts  xxi.  11.)  In  the  command 
"  Take  him  away^^''  is  implied  the  sinner's  exclusion  from  the  Church 
now  glorious  and  triumphant  in  heaven,  the  perfected  kingdom  of  God.f 
(Matt.  xiii.  48;  2  Thess.  i.  9.)  Nor  is  the  penalty  merely  privative:  it 
is  not  only  this  loss  of  good,  but  also  the  presence  of  evil.J  They  shall 
"  cast  him  into  outer  darknes,s ;"  so  called  because  it  lies  wholly  beyond 
and  external  to  God's  kingdom  of  light  and  joy.^  For  as  light  is  con- 
templated as  the  element  of  that  kingdom,  so  whatever  is  beyond  and 
without  that  kingdom  is  darkness — the  '■^ outer  dark}ie^s^^  girdling  round 
the  kingdom  of  light,  and  into  which  all  fall  back,  who  refusing  to  walk 
in  the  light  of  God's  truth,  fail  to  attain  in  the  end  to  the  light  of  ever- 
lasting life.  (Compare  Wisd.  xvii.  21 ;  xviii.  1.)  On  the  words  following, 
"  There  shall  be  iveejnng  and  gnashing  of  teetli"  there  has  been  occasion 
to  say  something  already.  || 


*  H.  dc  Sto.  Victore  :  Ligatis  manibus  et  pedibus,  id  est,  ablata  penitus  potes- 
tate  benfe  operandi :  but  I  rather  follow  Grotius  :  Notat  rh  &fxaxov  /cat  rh  &<pevKToi/ 
irrogati  diviiiitu.s  supplicii.  Taking  it  in  this  meaning,  Zech.  v.  8  will  supply  an 
in.structive  parallel.  The  woman  whose  name  is  "  Wickedness"  sitting  securely 
in  the  ephah,  the  grent  measure  of  God's  judgments,  which  she  has  filled,  is  forcibly 
thrust  down  into  it ;  and  the  mouth  of  it  is  then  stopped  with  the  huge  mass  of 
lead,  that  she  may  never  raise  herself  again.  Jerome  (in  loc.)  :  Angelus  prajcipi- 
tem  misit  in  medium  amphorae  .  .  .  ac  ne  fortfe  rursum  elevaret  caput,  et  sua  ini- 
quitate  et  impiotate  gauderet,  talentum  plurabi  in  modum  gravissimi  lai)idis  niittit 
in  OS  amphorae,  ut  Impietatcm  in  medio  opprimat  atque  concludat,  ne  quo  modo 
possit  erunipere.  The  women  with  wings,  who  bear  away  the  ephah.  \\ill  further 
answer  to  the  servants  here ;  and  the  outer  darkness  here  to  the  land  of  Shinar, 
the  profane  land,  whither  the  vessel  and  its  burden  are  borne.  Tlie  whole  visio'i 
too  (v.  5-11)  has  its  similarity  to  this  parable ;  for  that  and  this  speak  alike  of  tho 
cleansing  of  the  Church  by  judgment-acts  of  separation  upon  the  sinners  in  it. 

t  It  is  interesting  to  compare  Zeph.  i.  7,  8 :  ■  The  Lord  hath  i)repared  a  .sacri- 
fice, he  hath  bid  his  guests.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  day  of  the  Lord's 
sacrifice,  that  I  will  punish  the  princes  and  the  king's  children,  and  all  such  as  are 
clo^Jied  with  strange  niii'drrl.''     { ivStSufievovs  (vSv/xaTa  aWSrpta.     LXX.) 

^  AuGusTiNK,  Servi.  31,  c.  5. 

^  Peter  Lombard  (1.  4,  dist.  50)  :  E.\teriores  tenebne  enmt  (piia  tunc  peccato- 
res  penitus  erunt  e.\tra  Dcum  .  .  .  Sccludentur  ]>enitus  ft,  luce  Dei. 

II  Meuschen  {N.  T.  ex  Talm.  illust.,  p.  106)  quotes  a  Jewish  parable  as  bearing 


198  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON". 

The  parable  terminates  like  that  of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard 
with  that  weighty  saying.  "Many  are  called,  but  few  are  cliosen^''  which 
refers  not  merely  to  the  expulsion  of  this  unworthy  guest ;  but  in  the 
"  calhd  "  and  not  "  chosen  "  must  be  included  those  others  also,  that  did 
not  so  much  as  seem  (which  he  had  done)  to  embrace  the  invitation,  and 
who  expiated  their  contumacy  in  the  destruction  of  themselves  and  their 
city.  And  these  words  do  but  state  a  truth  which  had  long  before  been 
finding  its  fulfilment  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  which,  alas  !  is  always 
accomplishing  there.  They  were  fulfilled  in  the  history  of  that  entire 
generation  which  went  out  of  Egypt — they  were  all  "  called  "  to  a  king- 
dom, yet  were  not  in  the  end  "  chosen "  to  it,  since  with  most  of  them 
God  was  not  well  pleased,  and  they  died  in  the  wilderness.  (1  Cor.  x. 
1-10;  Heb.  iii.  7-19;  Jude  5.)  They  were  fulfilled  on  a  smaller  scale 
in  those  twelve  to  whom  it  was  given  first  to  see  the  promised  land — two 
only  drew  strength  and  encouragement  from  that  sight,  and  they  only 
were  "  chosen  "  to  inherit  it.  They  found  their  fulfilment  in  the  thirty 
and  two  thousand  of  Gideon's  army :  these  all  were  "  called  "  but  only 
three  hundred  were  found  worthy,  and  in  the  end  '■■chosen''''  to  be  heplers 
in  and  sharers  of  his  victory, — such  a  sifting  and  winnowii>g  away  had 
there  been  before.  (Judg.  vii.)  They  were  fulfilled  too  in  a  type  and 
figure,  when  Esther  alone  of  all  the  maidens  that  were  brought  together 
to  the  king's  place  was  "  chosen  "  by  him,  and  found  lasting  favor  in  his 
sight.     (Esth.  ii.)* 


some  resemblance  to  the  present.  It  is  of  a  king  who  invited  his  servants  to  a 
festival : — some  of  these  prepared  and  adorned  themselves,  and  waited  at  the  door 
till  he  should  pass  in,  others  said  there  would  be  time  enough  for  this,  as  the  feast 
would  be  a  long  while  in  preparing,  and  so  went  about  their  ordinary  business. 
The  latter,  when  the  king  demanded  suddenly  the  presence  of  his  guests,  had  no 
time  to  change  their  apparel,  but  were  obliged  to  appear  before  him  in  sordid  gar- 
ments as  they  were  ; — he  was  displeased,  and  would  not  allow  them  to  taste  of  his 
banquet,  but  made  them  stand  by  while  the  others  feasted. — But  if  this  can  be  said 
to  resemble  any  of  our  Lord's  parables,  it  is  evidently  the  Ten  Virgins,  with  which 
it  shoiild  be  compared,  and  not  this. 

*  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Dr.  Arrha  Anima)  makes  excellent  application  of  Esther's 
history  to  the  matter  in  hand :  Vide  qu&.m  multaeelectae  sunt,  ut  una  eligeretur,  ilia 
scilicet  quje  occulis  Regis  formosior  et  ornatior  cajteris  videretur.  Ministri  Regis 
multas  eligunt  ad  cultum.  Rex  ipse  unara  eligit  ad  thalamum.  Prima  electio  mul- 
tarum  facta  est.  secundiim  Regis  prjeceptionem,  secunda  electio  unius  facta  est, 
secundum  Regis  voluntatem  .  .  .  Rex  summus  Regis  filius  venit  in  hunc  mundum 
(quern  ipse  creaverat)  desj)onsare  sibi  uxorem  electam  uxorem  unicam,  uxorem  nup- 
tiis  regalibus  dignam.  Sed  quia  hunc  Judse  humilitatis  forma  apparentem  recii)ere 
contcmi)sit  abjecta  est.  Et  missi  sunt  ministri  Regis.  Apostoli  videlicet,  per  totum 
mundum  congregare  animas,  etadducere  ad  civitatem  Regis,  id  est.  ad  SanctamEc- 
clesiam . . .  Multi  ergo  vocati  intrant  per  fidem  Ecclesiam,  et  ibi  Sacramenta  Christi 
quasi  qusedam  ungucnta  et  antidota  ad  reparationem  et  ad  ornatum  animarum  prae- 


THE  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  KING'S  SON.  199 

parata  accipiunt.  Sed  quia  ore  vcritatis  dicitur,  Multi  sunt  vocati,  pauci  vcro  electi, 
non  onines  qui  ad  hunc  cultuni  sunt  adniissi,  ad  regnum  sunt  eligendi ;  nisi  tantum 
ii,  qui  sic  student  se  per  ista  mundare  ct  excolere,  ut  cilni  ad  Regis  prajsentiam 
introducti  fuerint,  tales  inveniantur,  quos  ipse  magis  velit  eligere  quiiu  reprobare. 
Vide  ergo  ubi  posita  es,  et  intelliges  quid  iacere  debes.  Posuit  enim  te  Sponsus 
tuus  in  triclinio.  ubi  mulieres  ornautur,  varia  pigmenta  et  diversas  species  dedit, 
cibosque  regios  de  mensEl  sua,  ministrari  tibi  praicepit,  quid(iuid  ad  sanitatem, 
quidquid  ad  refectionem,  quidquid  ad  reparandam  speciem,  quidquid  ad  augendum 
decorem  valere  potest,  tribuit.  Cave  ergo  ne  ad  colendam  teipsam  ncgligens  sis, 
ne  in  novissimo  tuo,  cum  in  conspectu  sponsi  hujus  repraesentata  fueris,  indigna 
(quod  absit)  ejus  consortio  inveniaris.  Pra^para  te,  sicut  decet  sponsam  Regis,  et 
spousam  Regis  coelestis,  sponsam  sponsi  immortalis. 


XIII. 
THE    TEN   VIRGINS. 

Matthew  xxv.  1-13. 

The  circumstances  of  a  marriage  among  the  Jews,  so  far  at  least  as 
they  supply  the  groundwork  of  the  present  parable,  are  sufficiently  well 
known,  and  have  been  abundantly  illustrated  by  writers  on  Jewish 
antiquities ;  and  indeed  no  less  through  the  accounts  given  by  modern 
travellers  in  the  East, — for  the  customs  alluded  to  hold  in  full  force  to 
the  present  day,  and  form  as  important  a  part  of  the  nuptial  ceremony 
as  they  did  in  ancient  times.  The  bridegroom,  accompanied  by  his 
friends  ("the  children  of  the  bride-chamber,"  Matt.  ix.  15  ;  "the -friends 
of  the  bridegroom"  John  iii.  29;  see  Judg.  xiv.  11),  goes  to  the  house 
of  the  bride,  and  brings  her  with  pomp  and  gladness  (1  Mace.  ix.  37-39) 
to  his  own  home,  or  occasionally,  should  that  be  too  narrow  to  receive 
the  guests,  to  some  larger  apartment  provided  for  the  occasion.  She  is 
accompanied  from  her  father's  house  by  her  young  friends  and  com- 
panions* (Ps.  xlv.  15),  while  other  of  these,  the  virgins  of  the  parable,  at 
some  convenient  place  meet  and  join  the  procession,  and  enter  with  the 
rest  of  the  bridal  company  into  the  hall  of  feasting. f  Such  seems  to  me 
the  exactest  account  of  the  ceremony,  though  by  some  the  circumstances 
which  supply  the  groundwork  of  the  parable  are  given  somewhat  differ- 
ently. They  describe  the  custom  to  be  as  follows : — the  virgins  meet 
the  bridegroom,  not  as  he  is  returning  with,  but  as  he  is  going  to  fetch, 
the  bride ;  and  accompany  him  first  unto  her  home,  and  only  after  that 

*  The  irap^fvoi  kraipai  of  Pindar,  Pyth.  3. 

t  See  Wolf's  latest  Jnurnal,  p.  17-1,  in  addition  to  the  accounts  given  by  earlier 
travellers  and  quoted  by  Ilarnier  and  Burder.  Bingham  {Antt.  b.  22,  c.  4,  ^  7) 
shows  the  importance  which  was  attached  among  the  early  Christians  to  the  lead- 
ing home  of  the  bride — so  that  without  it  the  marriage  in  some  legal  points  of 
view  was  not  considered  as  completed. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  201 

to  his  own.  But  this  supposition  has  everything  against  it;  besides 
being  inaccurate  in  itself,  and  needlessly  complicating  the  parable,  it 
also  considerably  weakens  its  moral  force ;  for  the  parable  is  certainly 
meant  to  leave  on  our  minds  the  impression  that  the  joining  of  the 
bridal  company,  for  the  purpose  of  passing  in  with  it  to  the  house  of 
feasting,  was  a  swift  and  momentary  thing,  to  be  done  upon  the  instant, 
and  of  which  if  the  opportunity  were  once  lost,  it  could  not  be  recovered. 
Such  would  not  be  the  case,  if  there  were  this  going  first  for  the  bride, 
and  only  then — after  a  considerable  pause  and  d(!lay,  whicli  would  ha^'e 
naturally  taken  place  at  her  house, — a  leading  of  her  home  to  her  future 
dwelling.  Neither  can  it  be  replied  to  obviate  this  objection,  that  per- 
haps the  nuptial  feast  was  celebrated  at  the  house  of  ]icr  parents  and 
friends,  for  this  was  as  much  contrary  to  all  the  customs  of  the  Jews 
(see  John  ii.  10)  as  of  the  Greeks,*  and  such  a  supposition  would 
seriously  affect  the  parable  in  its  spiritual  application.! 

The  marriages  in  the  East  taking  place  of  old,  as  they  do  now, 
invariably  at  night,  hence  the  constant  mention  of  lamps  and  torches 
carried  by  the  friends  and  attendants  ]\  therefore  we  are  told  here  that 
these  virgins  '■'■took  their  lamps."  (Cf  2  Esdr.  x.  2.)  These,  however, 
do  not  appear  to  have  had  the  same  religious  significance  which  they 
had  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  marriages,^  or  even  in  those  of  the  early 

*  See  Becker's  Chariklcs,  v.  2,  p.  468,  in  proof  that  the  celebration  of  the  mar- 
riage in  the  bridegroom's  house  and  not  in  the  bride's,  was  at  least  the  rule. 

t  One  would  not  lay  any  stress  on  the  fact  that  some  of  the  earliest  versions 
read,  "  went  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride;"  since  this  reading  has 
been  universally  rejected, — except  as  it  gives  an  evidence  of  the  light  in  which  the 
circmnstance  was  looked  at  by  some,  who  probably  were  familiar  with  the  cere- 
mony as  it  actually  took  place  in  Palestine  or  the  neighboring  countries.  This 
extract  from  Hughks'  Travels  in  Sicily,  d^'C.  (v.  2,  p.  20),  confirms  the  view  first 
given,  in  so  far  as  we  can  argue  back  from  the  modern  custom  to  the  ancient :  "  We 
went  to  view  the  nocturnal  procession  which  always  accompanies  the  bridegroom 
in  escorting  his  betrothed  spouse  from  the  [)aternal  roof  to  that  of  her  future  hus- 
band. This  consi.sted  of  nearly  one  hundred  of  the  first  persons  in  Joannina.  with 
a  great  crowd  of  torch-bearers,  and  a  band  of  music.  After  having  received  the  lady 
they  returned,  but  were  joined  by  an  equal  number  of  ladies,  who  i)aid  this  com- 
pliment to  the  bride."  These  "  ladies"  evidently  answer  to  the  virgins  of  our  para- 
ble, and  they  join  the  procession,  not  till  the  bridegroom  with  his  friends  have 
received  the  bride  at  her  father's  house,  and  are  escorting  her  to  her  new  abode. 

:}:  Thus,  Rev.  xviii.  23,  the  (j>ws  \vxvov  and  the  (pwv^  w/xcplov  koI  vvix<pris  arc  join- 
ed together. 

§  Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  torches  were  in  chiefest  use.  Thus  Catul- 
lus, Epithal.,  98:  Viden'  1  faces  Aureas  quatinnt  comas;  and  again  :  Mann  Pin»- 
am  quate  ta;dam;  so  Apuleius,  10:  Veluti  nuptiales  epulas  obitunc  dominie,  cor- 
uscis  facibus  prailucebant ;  and  Euripides ;  vvn<pLKa.l  XafxirdSes.  C(.  Bkckkr's 
Chariklcs,  v.  2.  p.  465.  Among  the  Jews  lamps  fed  witli  oil  were  more  connnon 
The  early  Christians  seem  to  have  used  indiscriminately  cither,  jus  the  expressions, 


202  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

Christians ;  but  were  in  use,  partly  as  being  actually  needed,  partly  as 
adding  to  the  splendor  of  the  scene.  That  the  virgins  should  be  ten  in 
number  is  not  accidental : — this  number  formed  a  company,  which  a  less 
number,  according  to  the  Jewish  notions,  would  not  have  done.*  Of 
course  the  first  question  for  the  interpreter  of  the  parable  will  be,  Who 
are  meant  by  these  virgins  ?  There  are  two  mistakes  to  which  the  word 
has  given  rise.  There  is  first  theirs,  who  thus  argue,  All  are  described 
as  virgins :  all,  therefore,  belong  at  the  inmost  centre  of  their  life  unto 
Christ.  Some,  it  is  true,  were  found  unready  at  the  last  moment,  and 
therefore  suflFered  loss  (1  Cor.  iii.  13),  even  a  long  deferring  of  their 
blessedness.  Yet  the  name  with  which  the  Lord  has  honored  all  gives 
assurance  that  none  were  ultimately  excluded  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  and  the  final  salvation.  They  who  take  this  view  of  the  case 
of  the  foolish  virgins,  in  general  connect  it  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
thousand  years'  reign  of  Christ  on  the  earth  and  a  first  resurrection. 
From  the  blessedness  of  these  they  sould  be  shut  out  for  the  unreadi- 
ness in  which  they  were  found,  whether  at  the  hour  of  their  death,  or  at 
Christ's  second  coming ;  they  should  be  thus  shut  out  because  of  their 
imperfections,  and  the  much  that  remained  in  them  unmortified  and 
unpurified  still,  which  needed  therefore  the  long  and  painful  purging  of 
this  exclusion,  and  of  the  dreadful  persecutions  to  which  all  who  were 
thus  left  out  should  be  exposed.  But  the  root  of  the  matter  being  in 
them,  they  did  not  forfeit  every  thing,  nor  fall  short  of  the  final  bliss  of 
heaven. t     There  might  be  an  argument  in  favor  of  this  view,  drawn 

faculse  nuptiales,  lucernse  conjugales,  denote.  It  is  only  in  later  Greek,  that  \afi- 
vis  came  to  signify  not  a  torch  or  link, — but  as  here  it  would  seem,  a  lamp  fed 
with'  oil,  which  would  at  an  earlier  time  have  been  expressed  by  Xvxvos  or  iwi- 
Xviov.  (See  Passow,  s.  v.  Xafiirds.)  Yet  the  mention  of  oil  would  not  of  itself 
exclude  the  possibility  that  these  also  were  torches.  For  Elphinstone  {Hist,  of 
India,  v.  1,  p.  333),  has  noted,  "  The  true  Hindu  way  of  lighting  up  is  by  torches 
held  by  men,  who  feed  the  flame  with  oil  from  a  sort  of  bottle  [which  would  answer 
to  the  ayyuou  here]  constructed  for  the  purpose." 

*  Thus  it  was  ruled  that  wherever  there  were  ten  Jews  living  in  one  place, 
there  was  a  congregation,  and  there  a  synagogue  ought  to  be  built.  Much  more 
on  the  completeness  of  the  number  ten  may  be  found  collected  by  Vitringa,  De 
Synagoga,  p.  232,  seq.,  and  in  Bahr's  SijmboUk  d.  Mos.  CuUiis,  v.  1,  p.  175. 

t  Thus  Poiret  {Divin.  (Econom.,  1.  4,  c.  12,  ^  18,  v.  2,  p.  376)  :  Illi  qui  tempore 
Adventtis  in  statu  quidem  gratiae  versabuntur,  at  multis  simul  imperfectionibus, 
multisque  negligentiis  implicati.  quas  hue  u,sque  nondum  correxerint  nee  abluerint, 
hi  inquam  k  regno  glorioso  Christ!  in  terra,,  dum  mille  anni  periodi  hujus  effluent, 
exclusi,  portam  sibi  obserari  videbunt.  Itaiiuc  foris  relinquentur  in  tenebris  pur- 
gationis,  eo  rumque  beatitudo  ad  Resurrectionem  usque  generalcra  et  post  annos 
mille  regni  Christi  atque  Sanctorum  differetur.  Hoc  ipsum  satis  apertfe  docet 
Parabola  Virginum  fatuarum.  Videmus  enim  eas  ob  negligentiam  suam  a.  convivio 
nuptial!  fuisse  exclusas,  etiamsi  et  Virgines  fuerint,  et  lampadem  fide!  habuerint, 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  203 

from  the  circumstance  of  these  foolish  being  styled  virgins  as  well  as  the 
others,  if  others  sometimes  undertook  tJie  office  of  welcmning  the  bride- 
groom, and  yet  live  Lord  had  chosen  to  give  tJtat  appellatipn  to  tJuise,  and 
to  sjjecify  tJiem  as  virgins.  But  seeing  that  to  such  the  task  in  the 
natural  order  of  things  appertained,  there  is  no  weight  in  the  argument 
derived  from  the  title  which  they  bear. 

The  second  error  is  one  of  which  Chrysostom  is  the  chief  champion. 
He,  taking  the  title  "  virgins"  in  the  literal,  while  every  thing  else  is 
taken  in  a  figurative  .sen.se,  limits  the  application  of  the  parable  to  those 
who  had  made  a  profession  of  outward  virginity,*  instead  of  seeing  that 
the  virginity  here  is  the  profession  of  a  pure  faith,  the  soul  guiltless  of 


etDominum  invooaverint.  Janua  enini  j.am  clausa  nunqiiam  itoriim  aperiebatur  dum 
hoc  tempus  durabat ;  (luoniam  commotio,  (jiia;  boc  in  mundo  flitura  est  anteqiiam 
finis  ejus  ac  periodorum  adveniat,  per  quam  Deus  hoc  in  mundo  et  in  omnibus 
quffi  ibidem  adsunt.  mutationem  banc  gloriosani  operabitur  ((pue  veluti  janua  erit 
ac  introductio  in  rcgnum  cjusdom)non  nisi  semelfutura  est.  Adluic  semel,  inquit, 
et  movebo  caelum  et  terram  ;  omnesquc  qui  tum  temporis  per  puritatem  perfectam 
ad  gloriani  adipiscendam  idonei  erunt,  impressionibus  divina;  luijus  motionis  recep- 
tis  mutabuntur :  at  post  hoc  tempus  ad  Resurrectionem  generalem  usijue,  nulla 
nova  commotio  aut  mutatio  fiet.  Tunc  enim  aderit  dies  quietis  natune  ac  creatu- 
rarum  onmium  quae  in  eandem  jam  erunt  introductte.  Abbinc  vero  oportebit,  ut 
Virgines  fatuae,  et  quicunque  nondum  veste  nuptiali  fuerint  induti,  ^ternitatem 
ipsam  exspectent.  Neque  enim  probabile  videtur  Virginibus  istis  negligentibus, 
in  quibus  tamen  tot  jam  erant  dispositiones  bonte  pariterque  iis,  qui  eo  tempore 
nondum  rite  parati,  bona  tamen  initia  jam  fecerant,  seternum  pereundum  esse :  sed 
nee  probabile  est  quamcumque  illi,  post  januam  semel  clausam,  pneparationem 
sint  adhibituri,  Christum  iterum  ex  quiete  sua  exiturum,  et  in  gratiam  eorum 
novam  crisin  ac  separationem  aliquam  peculiarem  in  naturft.  instituturum  esse. 
Von  Mayer  {Blatter  fur  hohere  Wakrheit,  v.  7,  p.  247)  interprets  the  parable  in  the 
same  manner,  and  Olshau.sen. 

*  Augustine  {Scrm.  93,  c.  2)  warns  his  hearers  that  the  parable  is  not  to  be 
limited  to  such,  but  belongs  to  all  souls,  quas  habent  Catholicam  fidem.  et  habere 
videntur  bona.  o])era  in  Ecclesia.  Dei ;  and  be  quotes  2  Cor.  xi.  2.  In  another  place 
he  says,  Virginitas  cordis,  fides  incorrupta ; — and  Jerome  (Comwi.  in  Matth.,  in  loc.) : 
Virgines  ai)pellantur,  qui  gloriantur  in  nnius  Dei  notitia,  et  mens  eorum  idolatriae 
turba  non  constupratur :  and  again  (Ad  Jiivi?i.,  1.  2)  :  Decern  virgines  non  totius 
generis  humani,  sed  solicitorum  et  pigrorum  exemjila  sunt,  quorum  alteri  semper 
Domini  ])ra3stolantur  adventum,  alteri  somno  et  inertias  se  dantes,  futurnm  judici- 
luu  non  putant.  There  is  apparently  Cbrysostom's  limitation  of  the  parable,  in  the 
use  made  of  it  in  a  prayer  for  the  consecration  of  nuns,  given  by  Mabillon  (IJlurg. 
Gall..  1.  .3.  p.  311),  where,  among  other  allusions  to  the  parable,  this  occurs :  Rcga- 
1cm  januam  cum  sapientibus  Virginibus  licenter  introeant.  Yet  this  maybe  no 
more  than  an  adaptation.  Tertullian  {De  Aiilma,  c.  18)  mentions  a  singular  use  or 
ratlier  abuse  which  some  of  the  Gnostics  made  of  this  parable  :  The  five  foolish 
virgins  are  the  five  senses,  foolish  inasmuch  as  they  are  easily  deceived,  and  often 
give  fallacious  notices ;  while  the  five  wise  are  the  reasonable  powers,  which  have 
the  capability  of  apprehending  ideas. 


204  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

spiritual  fornication,  of  apostasy  from  the  one  Grod.  For  such  we  are 
to  understand  by  the  virgins  who  go  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom, — all 
who  profess  to  be  waiting  for  the  Son  of  God  from  heaven,  to  love  his 
appearing,  all  who  with  their  lips  join  in  the  glorious  confession.  ••  I  be- 
lieve in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  shall  come  again  to  judge  both  the 
quick  and  the  dead,"  and  who  do  not  by  their  deeds  openly  deny  that 
hope ;  all  are  included,  who  would  desire  to  include  themselves  in  the 
number  of  his  believing  people.  This  they  have  all  in  common,  that  they 
confess  to  the  same  Lord,  they  profess  to  have  the  same  hope  in  him, — 
even  as  the  virgins  were  alike  in  this,  that  they  all  "  took  their  lamps^  and 
went  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom^''  But,  it  is  immediately  added,  '•'•jive 
of  tJiem  were  tvise,  and  Jive  of  t/iem  tvere  foolish ;  the  numbers  make 
nothing  to  the  case — only  the  division  is  essential.  They  are  not  dis- 
tinguished into  good  and  bad,  but  as  the  hearers  at  Matt.  vii.  25-27, 
into  "  wise"  and  '•'•foolish^''  for  as  a  certain  degree  of  good-will  toward 
the  truth  is  assumed  there  in  the  foolish  from  their  putting  themselves  in 
the  relation  of  hearers,  and  even  attempting  to  build,  so  here  from  their 
going  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom.  We  have  them  described — the  wise, 
2  Pet.  1.  5-8,  and  the  foolish,  2  Pet.  i.  9. 

The  Lord  proceeds  to  tell  wherein  the  folly  of  these  and  the  wisdom 
of  those  consisted  : — "  They  that  were  foolish  took  their  lamps,  but  took  no 
oil  with  tliem;  but  tlm  wise  took  oil  in  their  vessels  ivith  tlieir  lamps."  It 
is  evident  that  here  is  the  point  on  which  the  interpretation  of  the  para- 
ble turns :  the  success  of  an  interpreter  must  depend  on  his  rightly  ex- 
plaining what  the  having,  or  not  having,  a  reserved  supply  of  oil  may 
mean.  Here  again  we  meet  with  a  controversy  between  the  Romanists 
and  the  Reformers,  not  different  from  that  which  they  held  concerning 
the  signification  of  the  wedding  garment.  The  latter  asserted  that  what 
these  virgins  lacked  was  the  living  principle  of  faith  ;  what  they  had 
were  the  outer  deeds  of  Christianity,  these  were  their  lamps  shining 
before  men : — what  they  wanted  was  the  inner  spirit  of  life,  the  living 
faith ;  this  was  the  oil  which  they  should  have  had,  if  their  lamps  were 
to  burn  bright  before  Christ  in  the  day  of  his  appearing.*   The  Romanist 


*  This  is  very  much  Augustine's  interpretation  {Ep.  140,  c.  33 ;  Serm.  149,  c. 
11)  :  Lampades  bona  sunt  opera  .  .  .  et  ipsa  quae  etiam  coram  liominibus  lucet 
laudabilis  conversatio ;  sed  magni  interest  qua.  mentis  intentione  flat  .  .  .  Quid  est 
ergo  ferrc  oleum  secum,  nisi  liabere  conscientiara  placendi  Deo  de  bonis  operibus, 
et  non  ibi  finem  gaudii  sui  ponere,  si  homines  laudent.  Cocceius  explains  the  oil  in 
the  vessels  thus.  Doctrina  Spiritds  Sancti  tidem  pascens  in  perpetuura  ut  non  defi- 
ciat :  and  Cajetan.  a  Romanist  expositor,  consents  to  this  interpretation  ;  his  words 
are  so  excellent  that  I  will  quote  them  :  In  hoc  differunt  operantes  bona  opera, 
quod  aliqui  habent  testimonium  suae  bonitatis  foris  tantum  in  ipsis  operibus  bonis : 
intus  enim  non  sentiunt  se  diligere  Deum  in  toto  corde,  se  poenitere  peccatorum 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  205 

reverses  the  whole,  and  affirms  that  what  they  had  was  faith,  but  then  it 
was  a  faith  which,  not  having  works,  was  "  dead,  being  alone"  (Jam. 
ii.  17);  they  were  not  careful  to  maintain  good  works,  to  nourish  the 
lamp  of  faith,  which  they  bore  in  sight  of  men,  with  deeds  of  light  done 
for  and  in  the  sight  of  Grod ;  they  did  not  by  well-doing  stir  up  the 
grace  of  God  that  was  in  them,  and  so  through  this  sluggishness  and 
sloth  the  grace  which  they  did  not  use  was  taken  from  them ;  their 
lamps  burned  dim,  and  at  last  were  wholly  extinguished,  and  they  had 
not  wherewith  to  revive  them  anew.*  It  is  needless  to  observe  in  what 
different  senses  the  two  parties  use  the  word  faifU, — the  Romanist  as  the 
outward  profession  of  the  truth — the  reformers  as  the  root  and  living 
principle  of  Christian  life.f  If  it  were  not  fur  those  opposite  uses  of  the 
same  term,  the  two  interpretations  would  not  be  opposed  to,  or  exclude, 
one  another, — certainly  would  not  be  incapable  of  a  fair  reconciliation. | 
For  we  may  equally  contemplate  the  foolish  virgins  who  were  unprovided 
with  oiL  as  those  going  through  a  round  of  external  duties,  without  life, 
without  love,  without  any  striving  after  inward  conformity  to  the  law  of 
God,  to  whom  religion  is  all  husk  and  no  kernel ;  or  again,  we  may  con- 
template them  as  those  who,  confessing  Christ  with  their  lips,  and  hold- 
ing fast  the  form  of  the  truth,  yet  are  not  diligent  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  in  acts  of  charity,  of  humility,  and  self-denial ;  and  who  therefore 
by  that  law  which  decrees  that  from  him  who  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
even  that  which  he  hath,  do  gradually  lose  that  grace  which  they  had, 
and  find  that  they  have  lost  it  altogether,  at  the  decisive  moment  when 
it  were  need  that  they  should  have  it  in  largest  measure.  It  is  clear 
that  whatever  is  merely  outward  in  the  Christian  profession  is  the  lamp  i 
— wliatever  is  inward  and  spiritual  is  the  oil  laid  up  in  the  vessels.) 
When  we  contemplate  with  St.  James  the  faith  as  the  body,  and  the 
works  as  that  which  witnesses  for  an  informing  vivifying  soul,  then  the 

quia  sunt  ofFen.sa;  Dei.  se  diligere  proximum  propter  Deum.  Alii  autem  operantur 
sic  bona,  lit  et  ijisa  oj)cra  lucentia  testimonium  foris  rcdclant  boni  animi,  et  intus  in 
consciciitiSi  i)ro[)ria.  ipse  Spiritus  Sanctus  testificetur  spiritui  eorum  quod  filii  Dei 
sunt.  Sentiunt  enim  in  coi-de  toto  se  diligere  Deum,  poenitere  propter  Deum,  dili- 
gere  proximum  et  scipsum  propter  Deum,  et  breviter  Deum  esse  sibi  rationem 
aniandi  sperandi.  timendi.  gaudendi,  tristandi  et  breviter  operandi  intus  et  extra : 
hoc  est  enim  oleum  in  vasis  jjropriis. 

*  This  view  too  has  its  supporters  among  the  Fathers  :  thus  Jerome  (in  loo.)  : 
Non  liahciit  oleum,  quaj  videntur  simili  (juidem  fide  Dominum  confiteri,  sed  virtu- 
tura  opeKi  negligunt.     Cf.  Origkx.  in.  Mallh..  Tract.  32. 

t  As  Augustine.-  when  he  says  :  Animas  tuaj  anima  fides. 

I  For  instance,  who  would  refuse  to  accede  to  the  explanation  given  by  Ger- 
hard ?  Per  lamj)adcs  aceensas  exti-rna  oris  professio  et  exterior  pietatis  sjiecies  : 
per  oleum  vero  in  vasis  interior  cordis  justitia.  vera  fides,  sincera  charitas.  vigilan. 
tia,  prudcntia  quae  solius  Dei,  non  autem  homiaum  oculis  obvia,  intelliguutur. 


206  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

faith  is  the  lamp,  the  works  the  oil  in  the  vessels ; — but  when  on  the 
other  hand  we  contemplate  with  St.  Paul  the  works  as  only  having  a 
value  from  the  living  principle  of  faith  out  of  which  they  spring,  then 
the  works  are  the  lamp,  and  the  faith  the  oil  which  must  feed  it.  Yet 
in  either  case,  before  we  have  fully  exhausted  the  meaning  of  the  oil, 
we  must  get  beyond  both  the  works  and  the  faith  to  something  higher 
than  either,  the  informing  Spirit  of  God  which  prompts  the  works  and 
quickens  the  faith,  and  of  which  Spirit  oil  is  ever  in  Scripture  the 
standing  symbol.  (Exod.  xxx.  22-33;  Zech.  iv.  2,  12;  Acts.  x.  38; 
Heb.  i.  9.) 

But  under  whatever  aspect  we  regard  the  relation  between  the  oil 
in  the  lamps  and  in  the  vessels,  the  purpose  of  the  parable  is,  as  we 
learn  from  the  Lord's  concluding  words,  to  impress  upon  the  members 
of  his  Church  their  need  of  vigilance.  Regarded  in  the  one  view,  it  is  a 
warning  that  they  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works, — that  they  be  not 
weary  of  well-doing, — that  they  be  not  of  the  number  of  those  who  are 
satisfied  with  saying.  Lord,  Lord,  while  they  do  not  the  things  that  he 
says.  Regarded  under  the  other  aspect,  it  is  a  warning  that  they  be 
watchful  over  their  inward  state, — over  their  affections. — over  all  which, 
withdrawn  from  the  eyes  of  man,  is  seen  only  of  God ; — that  they  seek 
to  be  glorious  ivithin^  to  have  a  continual  supply  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
Jesus  in  their  inmost  hearts,  to  approve  themselves  before  God,*  as 
well  as  to  show  a  fair  and  unblamable  conversation  before  the  world. 
In  either  case,  we  must  remember,  and  it  adds  much  to  the  solemnity  of 
the  lesson,  that  by  the  foolish  virgins  are  meant, — not  hypocrites,  not 

*  This  is  a  point  which  is  brought  out  with  great  frequency  and  urgency,  by  the 
old  expositors,  by  Augustine,  Ep.  140,  c.  31,  and  again,  Scrni.  93,  c.  8  ;  by  Gregory 
the  Great.  Horn.  12  in  Evang. :  and  with  mucli  beauty  by  the  author  of  a  sermon 
found  among  the  works  of  St.  Bernard  (v.  2,  p.  722) :  Oleum  in  lampade  est  opus  bon- 
um  in  nianifestatione,  sed  dum  videtur  a  proximis  caritas  operis,  dum  mirantur  et 
laudant.  extolHtur  plerumque  et  adsurgit  elatus  animus  operantis,  et  dum  in  se  et 
non  in  Domino  gloriatur,  lumen  lampadis  adnullatur,  et  carens  fomento  congruo 
lampas,  quiE  coram  hominibus  clarfe  lucet,  coram  Domino  tenebratur.  Prudentes 
vero  virgines  prjeter  oleum  quod  in  lampadibus  habent,  oleum  aliud  in  vasis  repo- 
nunt :  quia  nimirum  sancta;  animse  dum  sponsi  sui  pra^stolantur  adventum,  dum 
toto  desiderio  ei  clamant  quotidie.  Adveniat  regnum  tuum,  prater  ilia  opera  quae 
proximis  lucent  ad  Dei  gloriara  et  videntur,  aliqua  in  occulto,  ubi  solus  Pater  videt, 
opera  fiiciunt .  .  .  Hasc  est  gloria  filiae  regis  ab  intus,  dum  plus  de  oleo  quod  in 
vasis  conscientijB  dilucescit,  quam  de  eo  quod  lucet  de  foris  gloriatur :  periisse 
asstimat  onuie  quod  cernitur,  nee  id  dignum  Judicat  remuneratione,  quod  favores 
hominum  proscquuntur.  Latenter  igitur  quie  prsevalet,  operatur,  petit  secretum, 
orationibus  pulsat  coelum,  fundit  lacrymas  testes  amoris,  .  .  .  hsec  est  gloria,  sed  ab 
intus,  sed  invisa,  filise  regis  et  amica;.  Hoc  oleum  fatu.-e  virgines  non  habent.  quia 
nisi  ad  nitorcm  vana;  gloriaj  et  fevorem  hominum  bona  non  opcrantur.  Hoc  oleum 
in  quo  prudentes  confidunt,  in  abditis  conscientiarum  vasculis  reponunt. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  207 

self-conscious  dissemblers,  much  less  the  openly  profane  and  ungodly, 
but  the  negligent  in  prayer,  the  slothful  in  work,  and  all  those,  whose 
scheme  for  a  Christian  life  is  laid  out  to  satisfy  the  eyes  of  men,  and  not 
to  please  God  who  seeth  in  secret.  Nor  is  it  that  they  have  actually  no 
oil  at  all ;  they  have  some,  but  not  enough ;  their  lamps,  when  they 
first  go  forth,  are  evidently  burning,  else  they  could  not  speak  of  them 
as  on  the  point  of  expiring  just  as  the  bridegroom  was  approaching.  In 
fact,  the  having  no  oil  provided  in  the  vessels  is  exactly  parallel  to  the 
having  no  deepness  of  earth  (Matt,  xiii  5) ;  the  seed  springs  up  till 
the  sun  scorches  it, — the  lamps  burn  on  till  their  oil  is  exhausted  through 
the  length  of  the  bridegroom's  delay.  In  each  case  there  is  something 
more  than  a  merely  external  profession,  conscious  to  itself  that  it  is  no- 
thing besides ; — it  is  not  that  there  was  no  faith,  but  ratlier  that  there 
was  only  that  Jules  tcmporaiia  which  could  not  endure  temptation  nor 
survive  delay, — the  Christian  life  in  manifestation,  but  not  fed  from 
deep  internal  fountains.  But  they  are  like  the  wise  virgins,  who  recog- 
nize the  possibility  that  the  bridegroom  may  tarry  long,  that  the  Church 
may  not  very  soon,  perhaps  not  in  their  days,  enter  into  its  glory ; —  , 
who,  therefore,  foresee  that  they  may  have  a  long  life  to  live  of  toil  and 
self-denial,  before  they  shall  be  called  to  cease  from  their  labors,  be- 
fore the  kingdom  shall  come  unto  them ; — and  who  consequently  feel 
that  it  is  not  a  few  warm  excited  feelings  which  will  carry  them  sue- ; 
cessfully  through  all  this, — which  will  enable  them  to  endure  unto  the  \ 
end ;  for  such  are  but  as  a  fire  among  straw,  which  will  quickly  blaze 
up  and  as  quickly  be  extinguished.  They  feel  that  principles  as  well 
as  feelings  must  be  engaged  in  the  work, — that  their  first  good  impulses 
and  desires  will  carry  them  but  a  very  little  way,  unless  they  be  re- 
vived, strengthened,  and  purified,  by  a  continual  supply  of  the  Spirit  of 
God.  If  the  bridegroom  were  to  come  at  once,  perhaps  it  might  be  an- 
other thing,  but  their  wisdom  is  that,  since  it  may  possibly  be  otherwise, 
they  see  their  need  of  making  provision  against  the  contingency. 

When  it  is  said  in  the  parable  that  the  bridegroom  did  actually  tar- 
ry, we  may  number  this  among  the  many  hints,  which  were  given  by 
our  Lord,  that  it  was  possible  the  time  of  his  return  might  be  delayed 
beyond  the  expectation  of  his  first  disciples.  It  was  a  hint  and  no  more; 
if  more  had  been  given,  if  the  Lord  had  said  plainly  that  lie  would  not 
come  for  many  centuries,  then  the  first  ages  of  the  Church  would  have 
been  placed  in  a  disadvantageous  position,  being  deprived  of  that  power- 
ful motive  to  holiness  and  diligence  supplied  to  each  generation  of  the 
faithful,  by  the  possibility  of  the  Lord's  return  in  their  time.  It  is  not 
that  he  desires  each  succeeding  generation  to  believe  that  he  will  cer- 
tainly return  in  their  time,  for  he  does  not  desire  our  faith  and  our  prac- 
tice to  be  founded  on  an  error,  as,  in  that  case,  the  faith  and  practice  of 


208  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

all  generations  excei^t  the  last  would  be.  But  it  is  a  necessary  element 
of  the  doctrine  concerning  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  that  it  should 
be  possible  at  any  time,  that  no  generation  should  consider  it  improba- 
ble in  theirs.*  The  love,  the  earnest  longing  of  those  first  Christians 
made  them  to  assume  that  coming  to  be  close  at  hand.  In  the  strength 
and  joy  of  this  faith  they  lived  and  suiiered,  and  when  they  died,  the 
kingdom  was  indeed  come  unto  them.f  But  in  addition  to  the  reason 
here  noted,  why  the  Church  should  not  have  been  acquainted  with 
the  precise  time  of  her  Lord's  return,  it  may  be  added,  that  it  was  in 
itself,  no  doubt,  undetermined.  Prophecy  is  no  fatalism,|  and  it  was 
always  open  to  every  age  by  faith  and  prayer  to  bring  about,  or  at  least 
to  hasten  that  coming,  so  that  the  apostle  speaks  of  the  faithful  not 
merely  as  looking  for,  but  also  hastmg^  the  coming  of  the  day  of  Grod 

(2  Pet.  iii.  12)  ;  and  compare  acts  iii.  19,  "Repent  ye that  the 

times  of  refreshing  may  come;"  these  "times  of  refreshing"  being  evi- 
dently identical  with  "the  times  of  restitution  of  all  things"  (ver.  21), 
the  glorious  setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ ;  and  we  find  the  same 
truth,  that  the  quicker  or  tardier  approach  of  that  time  is  conditional, 
elsewhere  declared  in  clearest  terms.  (2  Pet.  iii.  9.)  In  agi-eement 
with  these  passages,  we  pray  that  it  may  please  God  "to  accomplish 
the  number  of  his  elect,  and  to  hasten  his  kingdom."  But  while  the 
matter  was  left  by  the  wisdom  of  God  in  this  uncertainty,  it  was  yet  im- 
portant that  after  the  expectations  of  the  first  ages  of  the  Church  had 
proved  to  be  ungrounded,  those  who  examined  the  Scriptures  should 
find  intimations  there  that  this  might  probably  be  the  case.^  Of  these 
intimations  there  are  many,  and  this  present  passage  is  one. 

But  to  return ;  the  bridegroom  tarrying,  the  virgins  "  all  slumbered 
and  slvjyt."  The  steps  by  which' they  fell  into  deep  sleep  are  here 
marked,  first  they  nodded  the  head  or  slumbered,  and  next  they  slept 
profoundly.    Some  have  understood  by  this  sleeping  of  all,  a  certain  un- 

*  Augustine  :  Latet  ultimus  dies,  ut  observetur  omnis  dies ;  and  Tertullian  (Z?e 
Anima,  c.  33)  gives  the  reason  why  the  Fatlier  has  reserved  to  himself  the  linow- 
ledge  of  that  day :  Ut  pendula.  expectatione  solicitudo  fidei  probetur,  semper  diem 
observans.  dum  semper  ignorat.  quotidie  timens,  quod  quotidie  sperat. 

t  Yet  Augustine,  claiming  a  right  to  dissent  from  a  scheme  of  prophetic  inter- 
pretation current  in  his  day,  which  made  the  end  of  the  world  to  be  already  instant, 
says  very  beautifully  {Ep.  199,  c.  5)  :  Non  ergo  ille  diligit  Adventum  Domini,  qui 
ilium  asserit  pro])inquare,  aut  ille  qui  esserit  non  propinquare  ;  sed  ille  potius  qui 
eum  sive  propfe  sivc  long6  sit,  sinceritate  fidei,  firmitate  spei,  ardore  caritatis  ex- 
pectat. 

ij:  In  Augustine's  words,  Prsedixi,  non  fixi. 

^  Augustine  {Ep.  199,  c.  5) :  Ne  forte  ciim  transisset  tempus,  quo  eum  credi- 
derant  esse  venturura,  et  venisse  non  cernerent,  etiam  cetera  fallaciter  sibi  promit- 
ti  arbitrautcs,  et  de  ips&  mcrccde  fidei  desperarcnt. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  209 

readiness  that  will  be  found  in  the  whole  Church, — a  certain  acquiescence 
in  the  present  time  and  in  the  present  things,  even  among  the  faithful 
themselves,  though  with  this  difference,  tliat  their  unreadiness  will  be 
remediable,  and  easily  removed  ;  its  removal  being  actually  signified  by 
the  trimming  and  replenishing  of  their  lamps,  while  that  of  the  others 
will  be  beyond  remedy.*  Augustinef  proposes,  but  it  is  only  to  reject, 
this  interpretation,  that  by  the  sleeping  of  all  is  signified  the  love  of  all 
in  some  measure  growing  cold  ;  for  he  asks.  Why  were  these  wise 
admitted  unless  for  the  very  reason  that  their  love  had  not  grown  cold  % 
But  there  is,  he  says,  a  sleep  common  to  all,  the  sleep  of  death,  which 
by  these  words  is  indicated :  and  this  is  the  explanation  of  Chrysostom. 
Theophylact,  Jerome,  Gregory  the  Great,  and  nearly  all  the  ancient 
interpreters.  It  seems,  indeed,  far  preferable  to  that  other  which  un- 
derstands by  this  slumbering  and  sleeping  the  negligences  and  omissions 
of  even  the  best  Christians,  for  it  is  scarcely  probable  that  our  Lord 
would  have,  as  it  were,  given  this  allowance  for  a  certain  degree  of  negli- 
gence, seeing  that  with  all  the  most  earnest  provocations  to  diligence,  we 
are  ever  inclined  to  indulge  in  spiritual  sloth.  It  is  most  improbable  of 
all  that  he  should  have  done  so  in  a  parable  of  which  the  very  aim  and 
moral  is  that  we  be  always  ready, — that  we  be  not  taken  unprepared. 
But  perhaps  by  this  slumbering  and  sleeping  more  may  not  be  meant 
than  that  all,  having  taken  such  measures  as  they  counted  needful  to 
enable  them  to  meet  the  bridegroom  as  they  would  wish,  calmly  and 
securely  awaited  his  approach. |  Moreover,  the  conveniences  of  the  para- 
bolic narration  which  required  to  be  consulted  seem  to  require  such  a 
circumstance  as  this.  For  had  the  foolish  virgins  been  in  a  condition  to 
mark  the  lapse  of  time,  and  the  gradual  waning  of  their  lamps,  they, 
— knowing  that  they  had  not  wherewith  to  replenish  them, — would 
naturally  have  bestirred  themselves  before  the  decisive  moment  arrived, 
to  procure  a  new  supply.  The  fact  that  they  fell  asleep  and  were  not 
awakened  except  by  the  cry  of  the  advancing  bridal  company  gives, — 
and  scarcely  any  thing  else  would  give, — an  easy  and  natural  explana- 
tion of  their  utter  and  irremediable  destitution  of  oil  at  the  moment 
when  there  was  most  need  that  they  should  have  it  in  abundance.     And 

*  So  Cocceius :  Significat  sccnritatom,  qiuc  Ecclcsiam  Christianam  post  i)riniaui 
quasi  vigiliam  noctis  pcrsecutionum  cum  pace  invasit ;  and  Grotius,  in  this  view 
following  tlio  And.  Opcr.  Impcrf..  quotes  in  confirmation  Jam.  iii.  2;  Rom.  xiii.  2. 
Malilonatus  gives  this  explanation  in  a  form  somewhat  modified,  and  popular  at  tho 
present  day  :  Dormire  intorprctor  desinere  de  adventu  Domini  cogitare. 

t  Serm.  93,  c.  5;  Ep.  140,  c.  32. 

:j:  Eilary  {Coram,  in  Matlh.  ,  c.  27),  unites  this  meaning  and  the  preceding  :  Ex 
spectantium  somnus  crcdentium  quies  est,  et  in  poenitentia;  tempore  mors  temp*-^ 
ralis  univcrsorum. 

14 


210  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

had  the  wise  virgins  not  slept  as  well, — had  they  been  represented  as 
watching  while  the  others  were  sleeping,  it  would  have  seemed  like  a 
lack  of  love  upon  their  parts,  not  to  have  warned  their  companions  of  the 
lapse  of  time  and  the  increasing  dimness  with  which  their  lamps  were 
burning,  while  5'et  help  was  possible.* 

It  was  at  midnight,  and  not  till  then,  that  "  there  loas  a  cry  inade^ 
Behold  tJie  bridegroom  cometh ;  go  ye  out  to  meet  him ;" — this  cry  we 
may  suppose  to  have  been  made  either  by  a  part  of  the  retinue  running 
before,  or  by  the  applauding  multitude,  who.  even  till  that  late  hour,  had 
been  waiting  to  see  the  passage  of  the  procession  through  the  streets, 
and  thus  testified  their  lively  sympathy  in  what  was  going  forward.  But 
the  spiritual  signification  of  the  cry  at  midnight  has  been  variously  given. 
Most  are  agreed  to  find  an  allusion  to  "  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and 
the  trump  of  God"  (1  Thess.  iv.  16),  which  shall  be  heard  when  the 
Lord  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout.  Some,  however,  explain 
the  cry  as  coming  from  watchers  in  the  Church,  such  as  shall  not  be 
altogether  lacking  in  the  last  times, — by  whom  the  signs  of  the  times 
have  been  observed,  and  who  would  proclaim  aloud  the  near  advent  of 
the  Lord,  the  heavenly  Bridegroom,  when  he  draws  nigh,  accompanied 
by  the  angels  the  friends  of  the  bridegroom,  and  leading  home  his  bride, 
the  triumphant  Church,  and  looking  to  be  met  and  greeted  by  the 
members  of  his  Church  yet  militant  on  earth,  themselves  a  part  of  that 
mystical  bride,t  that  so  he  may  bring  her  to  the  glorious  mansion — the 
house  of  everlasting  joy  and  gladness  which  he  has  prepared  for  her. 
And  this  cry  is  "  at  midnight ;"  it  was  an  opinion  current  among  the 
later  Jews,  that  the  Messiah  would  come  suddenly  at  midnight,  as  their 
forefathers  had  gone  out  from  Egypt  and  obtained  their  former  deliver- 
ance, at  that  very  hour  (Exod.  xii.  29),  from  which  belief  Jerome:}:  supposes 
the  apostolic  tradition  of  not  dismissing  the  people  on  Easter  eve,  till 
the  middle  night  was  past,  to  have  been  derived.  They  waited  till  then, 
that  they  might  be  assembled  if  Christ  should  come,  who  was  twice  to 
glorify  that  night,  first,  by  in  it  resuming  his  life,  and  again,  by  assum- 
ing in  it  the  dominion  of  the  world :  and  not  a  few  have  found  in  the 
passage  before  us  an  argument  for  supposing  that  the  Lord's  coming 
would  actually  take  place  at  the  middle  night.  But  it  is  more  natural 
to  suppose  that  midnight  is  here  named,  simply  because  that  is  the  time 
when  commonly  deep  sleep  falls  upon  men, — when  such  an  occurrence  as 

*  Storr,  Dc  Par.  Chrisfi,  in  his  Opusc.  Acad.,  v.  1,  p.  133. 

t  Augustine  {Qiiccst.  Ixxxiii.  qu.  59) :  Ex  ipsis  virginibus  constat  ea  quae  dici- 
tur  sponsa,  tanquam  si  omnibus  Christianis  in  Ecclesiam  concurrentibus  lilii  ad 
matrcm  concnrrcre  dicantur,  cum  ex  ipsis  filiis  congregatis  constet  ea  quae  dicitur 
mater.    (See  Rev.  xix.  7,  9). 

:}:  Comm.  in  Malth.,  in  loc. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  211 

that  in  the  parable  would  be  least  looked  for,  accounted  least  likely  to 
happen  ;  and  because  thus  the  unexpectedness  of  Christ's  coming,  of  the 
day  of  the  Lord  which  "cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night"  (1  Thess.  v.  2), 
is  in  a  lively  manner  set  out.* 

But  when  the  cry  was  heard,  '■'■tJien  all  those  virgins  arose,  and 
trimmed  tJieir  lamps." j  Every  one  at  the  last  prepares  to  give  an 
account  of  his  works,  inquires  into  the  solidity  of  the  grounds  of  his 
faith. j:  seriously  searches  whetlier  his  life  has  been  one  which  will  have 
praise  not  merely  of  men.  for  that  he  now  feels  will  avail  nothing,  but 
also  of  God.  Many  put  oiF  this  examination  of  the  very  grounds  of 
their  faith  and  hope  to  the  last  moment — na}-,  some  manage  to  defer  it, 
and  the  miserable  discoveries  which  will  then  be  made,  beyond  the 
grave,  even  till  the  day  of  judgment, — but  further  it  cannot  be  deferred. 
When  the  day-of  Christ  comes,  it  will  be  impossible  for  any  to  remain 
ignorant  any  longer  of  his  true  state,  for  that  day  will  be  a  revelation 
of  the  hidden  things  of  men,  of  things  which  had  remained  hidden  even 
from  themselves ; — a  flood  of  light  will  then  pour  into  all  the  darkest 
corners  of  all  hearts,  and  show  every  man  to  himself  exactly  as  he  is, — 
so  that  self-deception  will  be  no  longer  possible.  Thus  when  the  foolish 
virgins  arose  to  trim  their  lamps,  they  discovered  to  their  dismay  that 
their  lamps  were  on  the  point  of  expiring  for  lack  of  nourishment, — and 
that  they  had  not  wherewith  to  replenish  them : — so  that  they  were 
compelled  in  their  need  to  turn  to  their  wiser  companions,  saying, 
'■'■Give  us  of  your  oil,  for  our  lamps  are  gone  out."^     Of  course  the 

*  Augustine  {Serm.  93.  c.  6) :  Quid  est  media,  nocte  1  Quando  non  speratur, 
quando  omnino  non  creditur  ; — and  Jerome  :  Subito  enim,  quasi  intempesta,  nocte, 
et  securis  omnibus  Ciiristi  resonabit  adventus. 

f  Ward  (  Vino  of  the  Hindoos,  v.  2,  p.  29),  describing  the  parts  of  a  marriage 
ceremony  in  India  of  whicli  he  was  an  eye-witness,  says  :  "  After  waiting  two  or 
three  hours,  at  lengtli  near  midnight  it  was  announced  as  in  the  very  words  of  Scrip- 
ture, '  Behold,  the  bridegroom  cometh  ;  go  ye  out  to  meet  him.'  All  the  persons 
employed  now  lighted  their  lamps,  and  ran  with  them  in  their  hands  to  fill  up  their 
stations  in  the  procession — some  of  them  had  lost  their  lights  and  were  unprepared.  Intt 
it  was  then  too  late  to  seek  them;  and  the  cavalcade  moved  forward." 

:(:  Augustine  :  Rationem  prajparant  rcddere  de  operibus  suis.  Cocceius  :  Qui- 
vis  homo  apud  se  fidei  suje  soliditatem  requisivit. 

^  The  hapd-lanip  was  naturally  small,  and  would  not  contain  a  supply  of  oil  for 
very  many  hours  of  continuous  burning:  even  the  lamps  used  at  a  festival,  which 
would  be  larger,  needed  to  be  replenished,  if  kept  burning  long  into  the  night. 
Thus  Petronius,  22  :  Tricliniarchus  cxpcrrectus  hicernis  occidcntibus  oleum  infu- 
derat ;  see  also  c.  70.  Such  lucernre  occidc?ifes  are  the  lamps  here,  foiling  and 
"  froing  out."  as  it  is  in  the  margin  of  our  Bibles,  not  already  '  ,son/-  mit."  for  in  that 
case  they  would  not  merely  have  needed  to  trim  and  feed  them  but  must  have  asked 
from  their  companions  also  permission  to  kindle  them  anew,  of  which  yet  we  hear 
nothing.    The  trimming  itself  implied  two  things,  the  infusion  of  fresh  oil,  and  the 


212  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

request  and  the  refusal  which  it  calls  out, — like  the  discourse  between 
Abraham  and  Dives, — are  only  the  clothing  and  outer  garb  of  the  truth 
— but  of  truth  how  important ! — no  other  indeed  than  this,  that  we  shall 
look  in  vain  from  men  for  that  grace  which  God  only  can  supply,  that 
we  shall  be  miserably  disappointed,  if  we  think  thus  to  borrow  in  an 
easy  lazy  way,  that  which  must  be  bought^ — won,  that  is,  by  earnest 
prayer  and  diligent  endeavor. 

'•'■But  the  wise  answered^  saying^  Not  so  ;*  lest  there  be  not  enough  for 
us  and  youP  Every  man  must  live  by  his  own  faith.  There  is  that 
which  one  can  communicate  to  another,  and  make  himself  the  richer — 
as  one  who  gives  another  light,  has  not  therefore  less  light,  but  walks 
henceforth  in  the  light  of  two  torches  instead  of  one  ;  but  there  is  also 
that  which  being  divine  is  in  its  very  nature  incommunicable  from  man  to 
man,  which  can  be  obtained  only  from  above,  and  which  every  man  must 
obtain  for  himself; — one  can  indeed  point  out  to  another  where  he  is  to 
dig  for  the  precious  ore,  but  after  all  is  said,  each  one  must  bring  it  up 
for  himself  and  by  his  own  efforts.  The  wise  virgins  did  all  they  could 
for  their  unfortunate  companions,  gave  them  the  best  counsel  that  under 
the  circumstances  was  possible,  when  they  said,  "Go  ye  rather  to  tliem 
that  sell,  and  buy  for  yoiirselves  ;^^  turn  to  the  dispensers  of  heavenly 
grace,  to  them  whom  God  has  appointed  in  the  Church  as  channels  of 
his  gifts,  or  as  some  would  explain  it.  to  the  prophets  and  apostles,  and 
learn  from  their  words  and  teaching,  how  to  revive  the  work  of  God  in 
your  souls,  if  yet  there  be  time.  Sometimes  the  words  have  been  under- 
stood as  ironically  spoken  ;t  but  how  much  more  pleasing,  how  much 
more  consistent  with  their  character  whom  the  wise  virgins  represent,  to 
see  in  them  a  counsel  of  love,  of  that  love  which  emphatically  "  hopeth 
all  things." — an  exhortation  to  their  companions  that  they  trust  not  in 
man,  but  betake  themselves,  if  it  yet  be  time,  to  the  sources  from  which 
true  eiFectual  grace  can  alone  be  obtained,  that  they  seek  yet  to  revive 

removing  whatever  had  gathered  round,  and  was  clogging  the  wick.  For  the  last 
purpose  there  was  often  a  little  instrument  that  hung  by  a  slender  chain  from  the 
lamp  itself — pointed  for  the  removing  of  the  snuffs  (the  putres  fungi)  from  around 
the  flame,  and  furnished  with  a  little  hook  at  the  side  by  which  the  wick,  when 
need  was.  might  be  drawn  further  out.  This  instrument  is  sometimes  found  still 
attached  to  the  bronze  lamps  discovered  in  sepulchres.  In  Virgil's  Moretum,  11 : 
Et  producit  acu  stupas  humore  carentes.     (See  Beckkr's  Gallus,  v.  2,  p.  205,  seq.) 

*  The  answer  in  the  Greek  is  stronglj'  elliptical  as  in  a  moment  of  earnestness 
and  haste.  Bengel :  Abrupta  oratio,  festinationi  illi  conveniens.  On  the  spirit  of 
the  answer  of  the  wise  virgins  as  regards  themselves,  Augustine  remarks :  Nou 
desperatione  dictum  est,  sed  sobria  (.'t  jMahnmilitate  ;  andChrysostom  (I>f  PffiwzV., 
Horn.  3)  :  Ou  5i'  aa-KKayxvi'M'  tovto  -rrotovffai,  oWa  Sm  tJ)  crTevhv  tov  Kaipov. 

t  Augustine  {S^  rni.  93,  c.  8) :  Non  consulentium  sed  irridentium  est  ista  re- 
sponsio  ;  and  Lather  quotes,  Justi  ridebunt  in  interitu  impiorum. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  213 

the  work  of  grace  in  their  hearts. — Nor  can  we  refuse  to  see  in  the 
reason  which  they  give  for  refusing  to  comply  with  the  others'  request, 
namely,  "  lest  tJiere  he  7wt  enough  foi-  us  and  ymi.^^  an  argument  against 
works  of  supererogation,  however  the  Romish  expositors  may  resist  the 
drawing  of  any  such  conclusion  from  the  words.  "  The  righteous  shall 
hardly  be  saved  ;* — the  wise  virgins  did  not  feel  that  they  had  any  thing 
oyer^ — aught  which,  as  not  needing  for  themselves,  they  could  impart  to 
others.  All  which  they  hoped  to  attain  was.  that  their  own  lamps  might 
burn  bright  enough  to  allow  them  to  make  part  of  the  bridal  company, 
to  enter  with  those  that  entered  into  the  joy  of  the  festal  chamber.f 

So  much  was  granted  them : — while  the  others  were  absent,  seeking 
to  repair  their  past  neglect,  "  tfie  bridegroom  came,  and  tJiey  tliat  were 
ready  "X  ^^^J  ^tose  lamps  were  burning,  having  been  fed  anew  from 

*  Augustine  {Ep.  140.  c.  34) :  Petunt  h  sapientibus  oleum,  nee  inveniunt,  nee 
accipiimt,  illis  respondentibus  se  nescire.  utrum  vel  sibi  sufficiat  ipsa  conscientia, 
qua.  exspectant  misericordiam  sub  illo  Judice,  qui  ciim  in  throno  sederit.  quis  glo- 
riabitur  castum  so  habere  cor.  aut  quis  gloriabitur  mundum  se  esse  k  peccato,  nisi 
superexultet  misericordia  judicio  1 

f  Tertullian  {De  Pudic.  c.  22)  makes  good  application  of  this  part  of  the  para- 
ble, when  he  is  opposing  the  libelli  pacis  which  the  confessors  in  the  African 
Church  gave  to  the  lapsed :  Sufficiat  martyri  propria  delicta  purgJisse.  Ingrati 
aut  superbi  est  in  alios  quoque  spargere,  quod  pro  magno  fuerit  consecutus.  Quis 
allenam  mortem  sua  solvit  nisi  solus  Dei  filius  1  .  .  .  Proinde  qui  ilium  ajniularis 
donando  delicta,  si  nihil  ipse  delitiuisti.  planfe  patere  pro  me.  Si  ver6  jjcccator  es, 
quomodo  oleum  faculaj  tuaj  sufficere  et  tibi  et  mihi  poterif? — Gurtler  {Sud.  Theol. 
Proph.,  p.  711)  gives  a  strange  story  from  Melchior  Adamus,  which  witnesses  how 
strongly  it  was  once  felt  that  there  was  here  an  argument  against  all  hoping  in  man 
and  in  the  merits  of  men  rather  than  in  God.  The  words  are  these  :  •  There  was 
A.  D.  1322,  exhibited  at  Eisenach  before  the  Margrave  Frederick  of  Misnia  the 
mystery  concerning  the  five  wise  and  as  many  foolish  virgins.  The  wise  were  St. 
Mary,  St.  Catharine.  St.  Barbara.  St.  Dorothy,  and  St.  Margaret.  To  these  come 
the  foolish,  seeking  that  they  will  impart  to  them  of  their  oil,  that  is.  as  the  actor 
explained  it.  intercede  with  God  for  them  that  they  also  may  be  admitted  to  the  mar- 
riage, that  is.  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  AVhat  happens  ?  the  wise  absolutely 
deny  that  they  can  communicate  aught.  Then  a  sad  spectacle  began — the 
foolish  knocked,  they  wept,  they  were  instant  in  prayer — but  all  profited  not  a  jot, 
they  were  bidden  to  depart  and  buy  oil.  Which  when  that  ])rince  saw  and  hear\ 
he  is  said  to  have  been  so  amazed,  that  he  fell  into  a  grievous  and  dangerous  sick- 
ness. '  What.'  he  exclaimed,  '  is  om-  Christian  faith,  if  neither  Mary  nor  any  other 
saint  can  be  persuadi'd  to  intercede  for  us  V  From  this  sadness  an  a])0])l('xy  had  its 
rise,  of  which  he  died  the  fourth  day  after  and  was  buried  at  Eisenach."  This 
event  is  told  with  some  differences  in  C.vRt.Yi.B's  Miscrllanies.  v.  2  p.  415.  It  may 
be  observed  here  that  this  i)arable  was  a  very  favorite  subject  for  the  mysteries  in 
the  middle  ages.     (Sec  Du  Mkhm.'s  P./e.s/V.s  popuhiirra  Latinrs.  p.  138.) 

:j:  In  the  Pir/.-e  Arnth  there  is  this  comparison  :  Seculum  hoc  simile  est  vestibulo, 
et  secnlnm  futurum  triclinio.  Pra^para  teipsum  in  vestibulo,  ut  ingredi  possis  in 
triclinium. 


214  THE  TEN  VIRGIN'S. 

their  vessels,  " went  in  with  him  to  the  marriage*  and  th^  dom-  was 
shut ;"  shut  as  much  for  the  security  and  joy  without  interruption  of 
those  within,  as  for  the  lasting  exclusion  of  those  without.  (See  Gen.  vii. 
16;  Kev.  iii.  12.)  '-What  door?"  exclaims  the  author  of  an  ancient 
homily  on  this  parable. f  "  That  which  now  is  open  to  them  coming  from 
the  east  and  from  the  west,  that  they  may  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven, — that  Door  which  saith, 
Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  Behold  how  it  is 
now  open,  which  shall  then  be  closed  for  evermore.  Murderers  come, 
and  they  are  admitted, — publicans  and  harlots  come,  and  they  are 
received, — unclean  and  adulterers  and  robbers,  and  whosoever  is  of  this 
kind,  come,  and  the  open  door  doth  not  deny  itself  to  them,  for  Christ, 
the  Door,  is  infinite  to  pardon,  reaching  beyond  every  degree  and  every 
amount  of  wickedness.  But  then  what  saith  he?  The  door  is  shut. 
No  one's  penitence, — no  one's  prayer, — no  one's  groaning  shall  any 
more  be  admitted.  That  door  is  shut,  which  received  Aaron  after  his 
idolatry, — which  admitted  David  after  his  adultery — after  his  homicide, 
which  not  only  did  not  repel  Peter  after  liis  threefold  denial,  but 
delivered  its  keys  to  be  guarded  by  him."     (See  Luke  xvi.  26.) 

The  door  once  shut,  '■^afterwards  came  tlie  otlver  virgins^  saying^ 
Loi'd^  Lord^  open  to  us^''  not  that  they  have  now  found  the  oil,  but  hav- 
ing sought  it  in  vain,  they  come  looking  for  mercy,  when  now  it  is  the 
time  of  judgment-!  In  the  title  "  Lord"  by  which  they  address  the 
bridegroom,  they  claim  to  stand  in  a  near  and  intimate  relation  to  him; 
as  in  the  "  Ijy}-d,  Lord,^''  twice  repeated,  is  an  evidence  of  the  earnest- 
ness with  which  they  now  claim  admission ;  some  say,  also  of  their  vain 
confidence  ;  but  perhaps  rather  of  the  misgiving  which  already  pos- 
sesses them,  lest  they  should  be  excluded  from  the  nuptial  feast,  lest  it 
be  now  to  late,  lest  the  needful  conditions  be  found  unfulfilled  oij  their 
part ; — even  as  it  proves ;  for  in  them  that  solemn  line  of  the  old  Church 
hymn  must  find  itself  true,  Plena  luctu  caret  fructu  sera  poenitentia. 
And  in  reply  to  their  claim  to  be  admitted,  they  hear  from  within  the 
sentence  of  their  exclusion, — "  He  ansvjcred  and  said,  Verilt/  I  say  unto 

*  Compare  Milton's  Sonnet  to  a  Virtuous  Young  Lady,  where  there  is  allusion 
in  almost  every  word  to  this  latter  portion  of  our  parable. 

Thy  care  is  fixeil  and  zealously  attends 

To  fill  thy  odoroii.'!  lamp  with  deed.s  of  lisht, 

And  hope  that  reaps  not  shame.    Therefore  be  sure, 

Thou,  when  the  Bridegroem  with  his  feastful  friends 

Passes  to  bliss  in  the  mid  hour  of  night, 

Hast  gained  thy  entrance,  virgin  wise  and  pure. 

t  The  same  from  whom  an  extract  is  given,  p.  206,  note. 
X  Augustine,  Ep.  140,  c.  35. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  215 

yow,  Ihnow  you  not."  It  is  not  that  he  disclaims  an  outward  know- 
ledge, but  he  does  not  know  them  in  that  sense  in  which  the  Lord  says, 
"I  know  my  sheep,  and  am  known  of  mine."  Tliis  knowledge  is  of  ne- 
cessity reciprocal,  so  that  Agustine's,  though  it  may  seem  at  first  a 
slight,  is  indeed  a  very  profound  remark,  when  explaining,  "  I  know  you 
not^'  he  observes,  it  is  nothing  else  than,  "  Ye  know  not  me."  Of  course 
the  issue  is,  that  the  foolish  virgins  remain  excluded,  and  for  ever,  from 
the  marriage  feast.*  (See  Isai.  Ixv.  13.)  On  this  their  exclusion  lien- 
gel  observes,  that  there  are  four  classes  of  persons ;  those  that  have  an 
abundant  entrance  into  the  kingdom,  entering  as  it  were  with  sails  set 
into  the  haven ;  those  again  that  are  saved,  as  shipwrecked  mariners 
reaching  with  difficulty  the  shore.  On  the  other  side,  there  are  those 
who  go  evidently  the  broad  way  to  destruction,  whose  sins  go  before 
them ;  while  again,  there  are  those  who,  though  they  seemed  not  far  off 
from  the  kingdom  of  God,  yet  miss  it  after  all ;  such  were  these  five 
foolish  virgins,  and  the  fate  of  these,  who  were  so  near,  and  yet  after  all 
fell  short,  he  observes  with  truth,  must  always  appear  the  most  miserable 
of  all.  Lest  that  may  be  our  fate,  the  Lord  says  to  us, — for  what  he 
said  to  his  hearers  then,  he  says  unto  all,  to  his  Church  and  to  every 
member  of  it  in  every  age, — " '  Watch  thercfoie.,  for  ye  know  ixeitlter  tlie 
day  nor  the  hour  ;'t  and  this  being  so,  the  only  certain  way  to  be  ready 
upon  that  day,  is  that  you  be  ready  upon  every  day  :  and  the  parable 
has  taught  you  that  unreadiness  upon  that  day  is  without  a  remedy ; 
the  doom  of  the  foolish  virgins  has  shown  you  that  the  work,  which 
should  have  been  the  work  of  a  life,  cannot  be  huddled  up  into  a  mo- 
ment.    '  Watch  therefore.,  for  ye  know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour?  " 

This  parable  will  obtain  a  wider  application  if  we  keep  in  memory 
that,  while  it  is  quite  true  that  there  is  one  great  coming  of  the  Lord  at 
the  last,  yet  not  the  less  does  he  come  in  all  the  great  crises  of  his 
Church,  at  each  new  manifestation  of  his  Spirit ;  and  at  each  of  these 
too  there  is  a  separation  among  those  who  are  called  by  his  name,  into 
wise  and  foolish,  as  they  are  spiritually  alive  or  dead.  Thus  at  Pente- 
cost, when  by  his  Spirit  he  returned  to  his  Church,  he  came :  the  pru- 


*  We  have  at  Luke  xiii.  25,  the  same  image  of  the  exchirled  vainly  seeking  an 
entrance,  tliough  it  appears  with  important  modifications.  It  is  tlicre  tlie  master, 
who  has  ajiiiointed  a  set  time  in  tlie  evening  by  which  all  his  servants  shall  have 
returned  home.  When  the  hour  arrives,  he  rises  uj)  and  bars  his  doors,  and  those 
of  the  household  who  have  lingered  and  arrive  later  cannot  persuade  him  again  to 
open  them.  Tiiey  remain  without,  and  he  declares  the  fellowship  between  them 
and  him  has  never  been  more  than  an  outward  one,  and  now  is  broken  alt<igether. 

t  What  is  more  in  this  verse  should  have  no  place  in  the  text,  and  has  proba- 
bly been  brought  into  it  from  the  parallel  passages,  such  as  Matt.  xxiv.  44.  It  is 
excluded  by  Lacbmann. 


216  THE  TEN  VIRGINS. 

dent  in  Israel  went  in  with  him  to  the  feast,  the  foolish  tarried  without. 
Thus  too  he  came  at  the  Reformation:  those  that  had  oil  went  in:  those 
that  had  empty  lamps,  the  form  of  godliness  without  the  power,  tarried 
without.  Each  of  these  was  an  example  of  that  which  should  be  more 
signally  fulfilled  at  the  end. 

It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  relation  in  which  this  parable 
stands  to  that  of  the  Marriage  of  the  King's  Son,  and  how  it  happens 
that  in  that  the  unworthy  guest  actually  finds  admission  to  the  marriage 
supper,  and  is  only  from  thence  cast  out,  while  in  this  the  foolish  virgins 
are  not  so  much  as  admitted  to  the  feast.  It  might  indeed  be  answered, 
that  this  is  accidental, — that  the  diiFerences  grow  out  of  the  different  con- 
struction of  the  two  parables  ;  but  by  such  answers  every  thing  that  is 
distinctive  in  the  parables  may  be  explained  away :  and  we  treat  them 
with  greater  respect,  when  we  look  for  some  deeper  lying  reason.  The 
explanation  seems  to  be,  that  the  marriage  festivities  which  are  there 
spoken  of,  are  different  from  these.  In  Grerhard's  words,  '•  Those  are 
celebrated  in  this  life  in  the  Church  militant,  these  at  the  last  day  in  the 
Church  triumphant.  To  those,  even  they  are  admitted  who  are  not 
adorned  with  the  wedding  garment,  but  to  these  only  they  to  whom  it  is 
granted  that  they  should  be  arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and  white,  for 
the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of  saints  (Rev.  xix.  8);  to  those,  men 
are  called  by  the  trumpet  of  the  Gospel ; — to  these,  by  the  trumpet  of 
the  Archangel.  To  those,  who  enter,  can  again  go^  out  from  them,  or 
be  cast  out ; — who  is  once  introduced  to  these,  never  goes  out,  nor  is 
cast  out  from  them  any  more :  wherefore  it  is  said,  '  The  door  was 
s/«<i.'" — We  may  finish  the  consideration  of  this  exquisite  parable  with 
the  words  in  which  Augustine  concludes  a  homily*  upon  it :  "  Now 
we  labor,  and  our  lamps  fluctuate  among  the  gusts  and  temptations  of 


*  Scrm.  93,  c.  10. — Besides  the  passage  referred  to  p.  214,  note,  there  is  an- 
other in  Luke  (xii.  35-38)  offering  many  analogies  to  this  parable,  though  with 
differences  as  well.  The  faithful  appear  there  not  as  virgins  but  as  servants,  that  is, 
their  active  labor  for  their  Lord  is  more  brought  out,  and  tliey  are  waiting  for  him 
not  as  here  when  he  shall  come  to,  but  when  he  shall  return  from,  tlie  wedding 
(tti^tc  avaXva-fi  iic  t'Tiv  ya.jj.wv),  from  the  heavenly  bridal,  the  union  with  the  Church 
in  heaven.  The  warning  to  a  preparedness  to  meet  him  clothes  itself  under  images 
not  exactly  similar.  They  must  have  their  loins  girt  up  (Jer.  i.  17  ;  1  Pet.  i.  13), 
and  their  lights  burning— that  is,  they  must  be  prompt  and  succinct  to  wait  upon 
him,  and  his  home  must  be  bright  and  beaming  with  lights.  The  festival  must 
be  prepared  which  should  celebrate  his  return,  and  his  admission  must  be  without 
delay,  and  then  that  whieh  they  have  prejjarcd  for  him  shall  indeed  prove  to  have 
been  prepared  for  tliemselves ;  "  IIu  shall  gird  himself  and  make  them  to  sit  down 
to  meat,  and  come  forth,  and  serve  them."  What  he  did  at  the  Paschal  Supper 
(John  xiii.  4).  shall  prove  but  a  prophecy  of  what  he  shall  repeat  in  a  more  glorious 
manner  at  the  Marriage  Supper  of  the  Lamb. 


THE  TEN  VIRGINS.  217 

the  present  world ;  but  only  let  us  give  heed  that  our  flame  burn  in 
such  strength,  that  the  winds  of  temptation  may  rather  fan  the  flame 
than  extinguish  it."* 

*  In  early  times  and  in  tlio  middle  ages  this  parable  was  a  very  fiivorite  subject 
of  Christian  Art.  Miinter  {Sinnhildcn.  d.  All.  Christ.,  v.  2,  p.  91)  mentions  a  pic- 
ture of  the  five  wise  virgins  in  the  Cemetery  of  the  Church  of  St.  Agnes,  at  Rome, 
probably  of  very  early  date  ;  and  Caumont  {Archit.  Relig.  au  Motjen  Age,  p.  345), 
describing  the  representations  of  the  Last  Judgment  so  often  found  over  the  great 
western  door  of  a  Cathedral,  says :  On  recontre  parfois  dans  les  voussures  des  por- 
tes  dix  statuettes  de  fcmmes,  les  unes  tenant  .soigneusement  h  deux  mains  uno 
larape  en  forme  de  coupe ;  les  autres  tenant  n^gligemment  d'une  seule  main  la 
m^me  lampe  renvcrs^e.  Le  Sculpteur  a  tonjours  eu  soin  de  placer  les  Vierges 
sages  a,  la  droit  du  Christ,  et'  du  c6t6  des  bienheureux :  les  Vierges  folles  h.  sa 
gauche,  du  c6t6  des  r^prouv^s.  For  many  further  details  of  interest,  see  Didron's 
Manuel  d'  Inconograpkie  Chrelumie,  p.  217. 


\ 


XIV. 
THE   TALENTS. 

Matthew  xxv.  14-30. 

f  While  the  virgins  were  represented  as  waiting  for  the  Lord,  we  have 
I  here  the  servants  working  for  him : — there  the  inward  spiritual  rest  of 
'  the  Christian  was  described, — here  his  external  activity.  There,  by  the 
end  of  the  foolish  virgins,  we  were  warned  against  declensions  and  de- 
cays in  the  inward  spiritual  life, — here  against  sluggishness  and  sloth 
in  our  outward  vocation  and  work.  That  parable  enforced  the  need  of 
keeping  the  heart  with  all  diligence,  this  the  need  of  giving  all  diligence 
also  to  the  outward  work,  if  we  would  be  found  of  Christ  in  peace  at  the 
day  of  his  appearing.  It  is  not,  therefore,  without  good  reason  that 
they  appear  in  their  actual  order,  that  of  the  Virgins  first,  and  the  Talents 
following,  since  the  sole  condition  of  a  profitable  outward  work  for  the 
kingdom  of  God,  is  that  the  life  of  God  be  diligently  maintained  within 
the  heart.*  Or  there  is  another  light  in  which  we  may  consider  the 
distinction  between  the  virgins  and  the  servants,  that  the  first  represent 
the  more  contemplative, — the  last,  the  more  active  working  members  of 
the  Church, — a  distinction  universally  recognized  in  early  times,  though 
of  late  nearly  lost  sight  of  among  us.  It  is  true  that  every  member  of 
the  Church  ought  to  partake  of  both,  of  action  and  contemplation,  so  that 
even  under  this  view  both  the  parables  will  still  keep  their  application 
to  all ;  but  one  element  may  predominate  in  one,  the  other  in  another : 
the  endeavor  of  each  must  be  harmoniously  to  proportion  them  in  his 
own  case,  according  to  the  gifts  which  he  finds  within  himself,  and  the 
needs  which  he  sees  in  others  around  him. 

We  meet  with  another  recension,  so  to  speak,  of  this  parable  at  Mark 

*  Or  they  may  be  co-ordinated  with  one  another.  Thus  Gerhard  {Harm.  Evang., 
c.  164)  :  Lampas  fulgens  est  talentimi  usui  datum,  lampas  extincta,  talentiun  otio- 
8um  et  in  terram  absconditimi. 


THE  TALENTS.  219 

xiii.  34,  with  not  unimportant  variations,  as  there  also  are  traces  at  the 
same  place  of  the  ten  virgins  ("  Lest  coming  suddenly  he  find  you  sleep- 
ing," ver.  3G) ;  the  whole,  however,  which  St.  Matthew  records  more 
distinctly,  being  by  St.  Mark  blended  together,  and  more  briefly  recorded. 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  it  is  the  same  discourse  which  both 
Evangelists  are  relating,  as  in  both  it  occurs  immediately  after  the  warn- 
ing concerning  the  calamities  of  the  last  days.  St.  Luke  (xix.  11)  has 
recorded  for  us  a  parable  very  similar  to  this  one,  but  certainly  not 
identical,  however  some  expositors,  as  Maldonatus.  may  have  affirmed 
the  identity  of  the  two.*  But  every  thing  is  against  this.  The  time 
and  place  are  diflferent ;  the  parable  which  Luke  records,  having  been 
spoken  when  Jesus  was  now  drawing  near  to  Jerusalem,  but  had  not 
yet  made  his  triumphal  entry, — this,  while  he  was  seated  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  the  third  day  after  his  entry  into  the  city.  That  was  spoken 
to  the  multitude  as  well  as  to  his  disciples :  this  in  the  innermost  circle 
of  his  own  most  trusted  followers,  of  those  to  whom  he  was  about  to  con- 
fide the  carrying  forward  of  the  great  work  which  Jie  had  himself  com- 
menced on  earth.  The  scope  of  that,  which  is  the  more  complex  parable, 
is  twofold,  and  may  be  thus  defined.  The  multitude,  and  perhaps  many 
that  were  following  the  Lord  with  true  hearts,  thought  that  he  was  now 
going  to  take  his  kingdom  and  to  reign — to  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  father 
David  at  Jerusalem.  He  would  teach  them,  on  the  contrary,  that  there 
must  yet  be  a  long  interval  ere  that  should  be, — that  he  must  go  away, 
and  only  after  a  long  period  return,  and  that  not  till  that  period  had  elapsed, 
should  the  powers  that  opposed  his  kingdom  be  eifectually  put  down.  In 
the  mean  time  (and  here  is  the  point  of  contact  between  the  two  parables), 
those  who  stood  to  him  in  the  relation  of  servants  and  friends,  were  not 
to  be  idly  waiting  the  time  of  his  coming  back,  but  should  seek  earnestly 
to  forward  his  interests  according  to  the  ability  which  was  given  them, 
being  sure  that  at  his  return  he  would  reward  each  according  as  his 
work  should  be; — at  which  time  of  his  return,  as  St.  Luke,  in  accord- 
ance to  the  plan  of  his  parable,  relates,  he  would  also  utterly  destroy  his 
enemies, — break  in  pieces  with  the  rod  of  his  anger  those  who  refused  to 
bow  to  the  sceptre  of  his  love.  The  scope  of  Ids  parable  then  is  two- 
fold. It  is  addressed,  in  part,  to  that  giddy  light-minded  multitude,  who 
were  following  Jesus  with  an  expectation  that  his  cause  would  speedily 
triumph,  and  who,  when  they  should  find  their  expectations  disappointed, 
might,  perhaps,  many  of  them  turn  against  him  and  join  in  the  cry, 
Crucify  him.  He  warns  them  that  his  triumph  over  his  enemies,  though 
not  speedy,  yet  should  be  certain,  even  as  it  would  be  terrible :  it  con- 

*  The  arguments  against  the  identity  of  the  two  parableg  arc  well  stated  by 
Gerhard.    (Harm.  Evang.,  c.  154,  ad  init.)  ^-•-^  r"r~,     --.^ 


2   1935 


<^ 


220  THE  TALENTS. 

tains  for  them  a  double  warning,  that  they  be  not  offended  or  prevented 
from  attaching  themselves  yet  closer  to  him  and  to  his  Church  by  the  things 
which  should  befall  him  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  that,  least  of  all,  they  should 
suffer  themselves  to  be  drawn  into  the  ranks  of  his  foes,  since  these  were 
doomed  to  an  utter  destruction.  For  the  disciples  also  it  contains  a 
warning,  that  this  long  period  which  should  intervene  before  his  coming 
again  in  glory  and  in  power,  was  not  to  be  for  them  a  period  of  sloth 
and  inactivity,  but  a  time  in  which  they  would  be  required  to  show  all 
good  fidelity  to  their  absent  Lord  :  which  fidelity  would  by  him  be  ac- 
knowledged and  abundantly  rewarded,  even  as  negligence  and  sloth 
would  meet  also  their  due  recompense  of  reward. 

Here  it  is  at  once  evident  how  idle  the  objections  are  which  have 
lately  been  brought  against  the  parable  as  given  by  the  third  Evangelist. 
The  objector*  imagines  that  he  detects  there,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mar- 
riage of  the  King's  Son,  a  blending  together,  through  loose  and  floating 
tradition,  of  heterogeneous  materials, — that  in  fact  we  have  there,  joined 
in  one,  what  ought  to  be  two  parables,  and  this  so  awkwardly  that  the 
joinings  are  plainly  discernible — the  occasion  of  their  confusion  being 
that  they  both  turned  upon  the  common  fact  of  a  lord  absenting  himself 
from  his  home  for  a  while.  He  observes  that  servants  and  citizens 
stand  in  no  relation  to  one  another,  that  with  the  very  slightest  altera- 
tions, ver.  12,  14,  15,  27,  would  form  a  complete  whole,  and  standing  by 
themselves  might  be  entitled  the  parable  of  the  Rebellious  Citizens  :  the 
remaining  verses  would  form  the  parable  of  the  Pounds,  which  would 
then  be  free  from  all  admixture  of  foreign  elements.! 

But  only  let  that  be  kept  in  mind  wh;ch  this  objector  seems  to  have 
forgotten,  or  never  to  have  perceived,  that  there  were  two  groups  of 
hearers  in  different  states  of  mind  and  needing  different  admonitions,  to 
whom  the  Lord  addressed  the  parable  which  has  been  recorded  in  St. 
Luke,  and  it  will  at  once  be  perceived  how  he  divided  to  all,  to  his  own 
disciples  and  to  the  multitude,  according  to  their  different*  needs.  In 
Luke  the  parable  is  of  necessity  more  complex,  as  having  a  more  com- 
plex purpose  to  fulfil  In  Matthew  it  is  simpler ;  for  it  is  addressed  to 
the  disciples,  or  rather  to  the  apostles  alone,  and  the  parts  there  meant 
for  the  multitude  would  be  superfluous  here,  and  accordingly  find  no 
place. 

*  Strauss,  Leben  Jes%,  v.  1,  p.  675. 

t  This  view  is  not  new  :  indeed  hi.s  whole  book  is  little  more  than  a  mustering 
up  and  setting  in  array  objections  which  had  been  made,  and  most  of  them  an- 
swered, long  ago.  Unger  on  the  same  ground  of  the  lack  of  unity  in  this  parable, 
says  (De  Par.  J.  Nat.,  p.  130) :  Itaciue  simplicem  apud  Matthieum  parabolam,  et 
omnium  Christi  parabolanini  siniplicitatem  atque  unitatem  recordanti  niihi  Lucas 
visus  est  cum  ilia  ,'.im])lici  parabola  hie  alteram  similem,  sed  alias  et  aliter  prola- 
tam,  in  unam  composuisse. 


THE  TALENTS.  221 

To  the  apostles  then  and  to  none  other  the  parable  of  the  Talents,  / 
which  alone  concerns  us  now,  was  spoken.  It  is  needful  for  the  right! 
understanding  of  its  outward  circumstances,  that  we  keep  in  mind  the 
relation  of  masters  and  slaves  in  antiquity ;  for  that  between  masters  and 
servants,  as  it  now  exists  among  us,  affords  no  satisfactory  explanation. 
The  master  of  a  household  going  away  does  not  leave  with  his  .servants, 
and  it  is  foreign  to  all  the  relations  between  them,  moneys  wherewith  to 
trade  in  his  absence ;  nor  if  he  did,  could  he  punish  them  on  his  return 
for  neglect  of  duty,  as  the  slothful  servant  is  here  punished.  But  slaves 
in  antiquity  were  often  artisans,  or  were  allowed  otherwise  to  engage 
freely  in  business,  paying,  as  it  was  frequently  arranged,  a  fixed  yearly 
bum  to  their  master :  or  as  here,  they  had  money  given  them  wherewith 
to  trade  on  his  account,  or  with  which  to  enlarge  their  business,  and  to 
bring  him  in  a  share  of  their  profits.*  In  the  present  instance  some- 
thing of  the  sort  is  assumed,  when  it  is  said,  "  The  kingdom  of  Jicaven  is 
as  a  man  travelling  into  afar  country^  who  called  his  own^  servants  and 
delivered  to  tlieni  his  goods."  It  was  '•  a  far  countrif  into  which  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  about  to  travel  ]\  and  that  his  servants  might  be 
furnished  in  his  absence,  he  was  about  to  intrust  them,  and  all  their 
successors,  whose  representatives  they  were,  with  many  excellent  gifts. 
The  day  of  Pentecost  was  no  doubt  the  time  when  the  goods,  that  is, 
spiritual  powers  and  capacities,  were  by  him  most  manifestly  and  most 
abundantly  communicated  to  his  servants,  that  they  might  profit  withal. 
(Eplies.  iv.  8-12.)  Yet  was  not  that  the  first  occasion  when  they  were 
so  given  :  the  Lord  had  communicated  to  them  much  during  his  earthly 
sojourn  with  them  (John  xv.  3),  and  before  his  ascension  (John  xx.  22), 
and  fi'oni  that  day  forth  he  has  been  evermore  delivering  his  goods  to 
each  successive  generation  of  his  servants.  This  being  so,  the  parable 
has  application  to  all  times ; — yet  primarily  to  all  persons  :  it  was 
first  addressed  to  the  apostles  alone,  and  the  gifts  for  the  exercise  of  the 
mini.stry.  the  powers  which  Christ  has  given  to  his  Church,  are  signified, 
in  the  first  place,  by  the  committed  talents.  Seeing,  however,  that  all 
are  called  in  their  measure  to  edify  one  another,  that  all  Christians  have 
a  spiritual  vocation,  and  are  intrusted  with  gifts,  more  or  fewer,  for 
which  tliey  will  have  to  render  an  account,  the  parable  is  applicable  to   i 

*  Soe  Mr.  Greswell's  Exp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  5,  part  2,  p.  27,  scq.,  and  the  Diet, 
of  Gr.  anil  Itnm.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Servus,  pp.  867,  873. 

t  It  slioiild  not  bo  "  his  mPii  servants  ;"  for  there  is  no  emphasis  here  on  the 
IZlovi  It  i'^  only  the  same  misu.se  that  in  later  Latin  has  proprius  for  suus  or  ejus. 
So  Matt.  \  X '  i     I    airriK^fv  (Is  rhv  Kiov  a.yp6v. 

^  Av/:f.  Oper.  Imprrf.,  Horn.  58 :  Ad  Patrem  itunis,  peregre  se  itiirnm  dicit, 
propter  caritatem  sanctorum,  quos  relinquebat  in  terris,  com  magis  percgre  esset 
in  mundo 


222  THE  TALENTS. 

all.  "While,  too,  it  has  relation  first  to  spiritual  gifts  and  capacities, 
yet  it  has  not  therefore  no  relation  to  those  other  gifts  and  endowments, 
as  wealth,  reputation,  ability,  which,  though  not  in  themselves  spiritual, 
are  yet  given  to  men  that  they  may  be  turned  to  spiritual  ends, — are 
capable  of  being  sanctified  to  the  Lord,  and  consecrated  to  his  service, 
and  for  the  use  or  abuse  of  which,  the  possessors  will  have  also  to  render 
an  account.  There  is,  indeed,  a  witness  for  this  in  our  English  word 
"  talent^^  which  has  come  to  signify  any  mental  endowments,  faculties, 
or  powers  whatever,  a  use  which  is  of  course  entirely  the  growth  of  this 
parable,  even  as  it  is  a  proof  of  the  manner  in  which  it  has  worked  itself 
into  the  thoughts  and  language  of  men. 

But  different  men  receive  these  gifts  in  very  difi'erent  proportions : 
"  Unto  one  he  gave  jive  talents^  to  another  tivo,  and  to  another  one ;  to 
every  man  according  to  his  several  ability P*  It  is  not  that  the  gifts,  as 
Theophylact  explains  it,  were  to  each  "  according  to  the  measure  of  his 
faith  and  purity,"  for  the  faith  which  purifies  is  itself  one  of  the  chiefest 
of  these  gifts :  but  to  each  according  to  his  ability,  inasmuch  as  the  natu- 
ral is  the  ground  upon  which  the  spiritual  is  superinduced,  and  grace 
does  not  dissolve  the  groundwork  of  the  individual  character,  nor  abolish 
all  its  peculiarities,  nor  bring  all  that  are  subject  to  it  to  a  common 
standard.  (See  1  Cor.  xii.  4-31  ;  Ephes.  iv.  16.)  The  natural  gifts  are 
as  the  vessel,  which  may  be  large  or  may  be  small,  and  which  receives 
according  to  its  capacity  ;t  but  which  in  each  case  is  filled ;  so  that  we 
are  not  to  think  of  him  who  had  received  the  two  talents,  as  incompletely 
furnished  in  comparison  with  him  that  had  received  the  five,  any  more 
than  we  should  affirm  a  small  circle  incomplete  as  compared  with  a  large. 
Unfitted  he  might  be  for  so  wide  a  sphere  of  labor,  but  altogether  as 
perfectly  equipped  for  that  to  which  he  was  destined :  for  "  there  are 
diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit," — and  as  the  body  is  not  all  eye, 
nor  are  all  in  an  army  generals  or  captains,^  so  neither  in  the  Church, 
are  all  furnished  to  be  leaders  and  governors.  Yet  while  we  speak  of 
natural  capacity  as  being  the  vessel  for  receiving  the  wine  of  the  Spirit, 
we  must  not  leave  out  of  account,  that  comparative  unfaithfulness,  stop- 
ping short  indeed  of  that  which  would  cause  the  gift  to  be  quite  taken 
away,  will  yet  narrow  the  vessel ;  even  as  fidelity  has  this  tendency — 
to  dilate  it,  so  that  the  person  with  far  inferior  natural  gifts  yet  often 


*  Cajetan :  Disponit  siquidem  Deus  in  Ecclesid,  suaviter  omnia :  neminem  onerat 
supra  virca,  nulli  ncgat  donum  congruum  .suis  viribus. 

t  Jerome  :  Christu.s  doctrinam  Evangelicam  tradidit,  non  pro  largitate  et  par- 
citato  alter!  plu.s^  ct  alteri  minu.s  tribucns,  sed  pro  accipien  turn  viribus  ;  quomod6 
et  apostolus  eos  qui  solidum  cibum  capere  non  poterant,  lacte  pota.sse  se  dicit. 

%  See  Clemens  Rom.  ad  Corinth.,  c,  37,  where  this  comparison  is  used. 


THE  TALENTS.  223 

brings  in  a  far  more  abundant  harvest,  than  one  with  superior  powers, 
who  yet  does  bring  in  something. 

Having  thus  committed  the  talents  to  his  servants,  and  divided  wisely 
unto  each  according  to  his  several  powers,  the  lord,  without  more  delay, 
"  straighHvay  took  Ids  journey  I'''  In  the  things  earthly  the  householder's 
distribution  of  the  gifts  naturally  and  of  necessity  ^jyeca/es  his  departure  ; 
in  the  heavenly  it  is  not  altogether  so ;  the  Ascension,  or  departure,  goes 
before  Pentecost,  or  the  distribution  of  gifts  ;  yet  the  "  straigJdway  "  still 
remains  in  full  force :  the  interval  between  them  was  the  smallest,  one 
following  hard  upon  the  other,  however  the  order  was  reversed.  The 
three  verses  which  follow  (17-19)  embrace  the  whole  period  intervening 
between  the  first  and  second  coming  of  Christ.  Two  of  the  servants, 
those  to  whom  the  largest  moneys  have  been  committed,  lay  out  those 
sums  with  diligence  and  success.  These  are  the  representatives  of  all 
that  are  diligent  and  faithful  in  their  office  and  ministry,  whatsoever  that 
may  be.  There  is  this  variation  between  our  parable  and  St.  Luke's, 
that  here  the  faithful  servants  multiply  their  unequal  sums  in  the  same 
proportions :  "  He  that  had  received  tJiefive  talents^  mcule  tliem  otlver  five 
talents^''  and  again,  "  he  that  had  received  the  tico^  he  also  gained  other 
tivo;^^ — while  there  they  multiply  their  equal  sums  in  different  propor- 
tion ;  all  had  alike  received  a  pound,  but  one  gained  with  that  pound  ten 
pounds,  and  another  five.  Two  most  important  truths  are  thus  brought 
out,  as  it  could  not  have  conveniently  been  done  in  a  single  narration — 
first  by  St.  Matthew  this  truth,  that  according  as  we  have  received  will 
it  be  expected  from  us — and  this  secondly  by  St.  Luke,  that  as  men  dif- 
fer in  fidelity,  in  zeal,  in  labor,  so  will  they  differ  in  the  amount  of  their 
spiritual  gains. — But  if  two  of  the  servants  were  thus  faithful  in  the 
things  committed  to  them,  it  was  otherwise  with  the  third ;  "  lie  that 
had  received  one^'  talent,  '■''went  and  digged  in  the  earthy  and  hid  his 
ImcVs  money " — an  apt  image  for  the  failing  to  use  divinely  imparted 
gifts,  for  "  Wisdom  that  is  hid,  and  treasure  that  is  hoarded  up,  what 
profit  is  in  them  both  ?  Better  is  he  that  hideth  his  folly,  than  a  man 
that  hideth  his  wisdom."*  (Sirach,  xx.  30,  31.)  In  St.  Luke  he  hides 
his  pound  in  a  napkin,  but  that  would  have  been  impossible  with  so  large 

*  Compare  Shakspeare : — 

"  Heaven  does  with  us,  as  wc  with  torches  do  : 
Not  light  them  for  themselves  :  for  if  our  virtues 
Did  not  go  forth  of  us, 'twere  all  alike 
As  if  we  had  ihem  not.     Spirits  are  not  finely  touched 
But  for  fine  issues  :  nor  Nature  never  lends 
The  .smallest  scruple  of  her  excellence, 
But  like  a  thrifty  goddess  she  determines 
Herself  the  glory  of  a  creditor, 
Both  thanks  and  use." 


224  THE  TALENTS. 

a  sum  as  a  talent,  which  is,  therefore,  more  fitly  said  to  have  been  con- 
cealed in  tlie  earth.* 

'•  After  a  long  time  the  lord  of  those  servcmts  cometh,  and  reckoneth 
with  tliemP  In  the  joyful  coming  forward  of  the  faithful  servants,  we 
see  an  example  of  boldness  in  the  day  of  judgment:  they  had  something 
to  show,  as  Paul  so  earnestly  desired  that  he  might  have,  when  he  said 
to  his  beloved  Thessalonian  converts,  '•  What  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or  crown 
of  rejoicing  ?  Are  not  even  ye  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
at  his  coming?"  (1  Thess,  ii.  19;  2  Cor.  i.  14;  Phil.  iv.  1.)  In  St. 
Matthew  the  faithful  servant  comes  forward,  saying,  "  Behold^  I  have 
gained^''  while  in  St.  Luke  it  is,  "  Thy  pound  hath  gained;"  thus  be- 
tween them  they  make  up  the  speech  of  St.  Paul,  "  I — yet  not  I,  but  the 
grace  of  God  that  was  with  me."  And  even  in  St.  Matthew,  "  /  have 
gained  "  is  preceded  by  that  other  word  "  thou  deliveredst  me ; "  it  is  only 
thy  gift  which  I  have  so  multiplied.  In  St.  Matthew,  as  has  been  ob- 
served, the  gain  is  according  to  the  talents,  five  for  five,  and  two  for  two. 
Consistently  with  this,  the  commendation  of  the  servants  is  expressed  in 
exactly  the  same  language,  even  as  the  reward  to  each  is  precisely  the 
same :  to  each  it  is  said,  "  Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  LordP\  that 
is,  become  a  sharer  of  my  joy.  No  doubt  the  image  underlying  this 
language  is,  that  the  master  celebrates  his  return  by  a  great  festival,  to 
which  each  of  the  servants,  as  soon  as  he  has  rendered  his  accounts,  and 
shown  that  he  has  been  true  to  his  master's  interests  in  his  absence,  is 
bidden  freely  to  enter.  It  is  well  known  that  under  certain  circumstances 
the  master's  inviting  his  slave  to  sit  down  with  him  at  table,  did  itself 
constitute  the  act  of  manumission ;  henceforth  he  was  free.ij:     Perhaps 


*  Jerome  {Ad  Damas.)  finds  a  further  distinction  between  hiding  in  the  earth 
and  in  a  napkin :  Hoc  talentum  non  est  in  sudario  colligandum,  id  est,  dehcate 
otiosfeqne  tractandum,  nee  in  terra,  defodiendum,  terrenis  scilicet  cogitationibus 
obscurandum. 

t  Leighton's  words  on  this  entering  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord  are  beautiful :  "  It 
is  but  little  we  can  receive  here,  some  drops  of  joy  that  enter  into  us,  but  there  we 
shall  enter  into  joy,  as  vessels  put  into  a  sea  of  happiness."  Gerhard  has  the  same 
thought :  Tam  magnum  enim  erit  illud  gaudium,  lit  non  possit  in  homine  conclu- 
di  vel  ab  co  compreliendi,  ideo  homo  intrat  in  illud  incomprehensibile  gaudium. 
non  autem  intrat  illud  in  hominem  velut  ab  homine  comprehensum ;  and  H.  de 
Sto.  Victore  {Erud.  Thcol.,  1. 3)  says  on  this  joy  of  the  Lord :  Triplex  est  gaudium : 
est  gaudium  seculi.  est  gaudium  tuum,  est  gaudium  Domini  tui.  Primum  est  de 
terrena  affluiMitia:  secundum  de  bona,  conscientia :  tertium  de  ajternitatis  experi- 
entia,.  Noil  igitur  e.xeas  in  gaudium  seculi,  non  remaneas  in  gaudio  tuo,  sed  intres 
gaudium  Domini  tui  .  .  .  Ad  primum  exivit  homo,  cCim  cccidit  de  paradise :  ad 
secundum  venire  incipit,  cilm  per  fidcm  reconciliatus  Deo.  Tunc  autem  ad  tertium 
pervenift.  ciim  videndo  ipsum  sicuti  est  in  ieternum  frueter  ipso. 

X  See  the  Diet,  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Manumissio,  p.  596. 


THE  TALENTS.  225 

there  may  be  here  allusion  to  soincthiug  of  the  kind — the  incorporation 
in  an  act  of  what  once  he  had  spoken  in  words,  '•  Henceforth  I  call  you 
not  servants,  .  .  but  I  have  called  you  friends."  (John  xv.  15;  Luke 
xii.  37  ;  llev.  iii.  20.) 

But  there  remains  one  who  has  not  yet  given  in  his  account,  and  it 
has  been  often  observed  how  solemn  a  warning  there  is,  and  to  how  many, 
in  the  fact,  that  he  to  whom  only  the  one  talent  had  been  committed,  is 
the  one  who  is  found  faulty — since  an  excuse  like  the  following  might 
very  easily  occur  to  such  :  •'  So  little  is  committed  to  my  charge,  that  it 
matters  not  how  I  administer  that  little ;  at  the  best  I  cannot  do  much 
for  God'.s  glory ;  what  signifies  the  little,  whether  it  be  done  or  left  un- 
done .^"  But  here  we  are  instructed  that  the  Lord  looks  for  fidelity  in 
little  as  well  as  in  much.*  AVe  can  well  understand  why  lie  should 
have  lingered  to  the  last,  being  reluctant  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  his 
lord.  It  is  true  that  he  had  not  wasted  his  master's  goods  like  the  Un- 
just Steward,  nor  spent  all  his  portion  in  riotous  living  like  the  Prodigal, 
nor  was  he  ten  thousand  talents  in  debt  like  the  Unmerciful  Servant ; 
and  it  is  an  entire  mistake  to  mix  up  his  case  with  theirs,  when  it  should 
be  kept  entirely  distinct.  The  consequence  of  such  confounding  his  guilt 
with  theirs  would  be,  that  the  very  persons  whose  consciences  the  para- 
ble was  meant  to  reach  would  evade  its  force.  When  we  weave  the 
meshes  of  the  spiritual  net  so  large,  all  but  the  vei'y  worst  offenders  are 
able  to  slip  through :  and  the  parable  is  not  for  such,  not  for  those  that 
are  evidently  by  their  lives  and  actions  denying  that  they  count  Christ 
to  be  their  Lord  and  Master  at  all :  it  is  not  for  them  who  thus  squander 
their  talent,  or  deny  that  they  have  ever  received  one :  the  law,  and  their 
own  hearts,  tell  them  sufficiently  plainly  of  their  sin  and  danger.  But 
the  warning  we  have  here  is  for  them  who  Jiicle  their  talent,  who  being 
equipped  for  a  sphere  of  activity  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  do  yet  choose, 
to  use  Bacon's  words,  "  a  goodness  solitary  and  particular,  rather  than 
generative  and  seminal."  There  is  great  danger  that  such  might  deceive 
themselves,  as  there  are  so  many  temptations  to  a  shrinking  from  the 
labor  and  the  toil  involved  in  a  diligent  laying  out  of  our  talent.  There 
is  a  show  of  humility  in  the  excuses  that  a  person  so  inclined  would 
make ;  as  for  instance,  '•  The  care  of  my  own  soul  is  sufficient  to  occupy 
me  wholly  ; — the  responsibility  of  any  spiritual  work  is  so  great,  so  awful, 
that  I  dare  not  undertake  it ; — while  I  am  employed  about  the  souls  of 
others.  I  may  perhaps  be  losing  my  own."  We  read  repeatedly  of  those 
in  the  early  Church,  who  on  grounds  like  these,  persisted  in  refusing 

*  Grotius  :  In  co  cui  minimmn  crat  concrcditum  negligontifc  cxeinplum  posuit 
Christus.  no  (juis  spcrarct  excusatum  sc  iri  ab  ouuii  labore,  idco  quod  nou  cximia 
dona  accepissot. 

15 


226  THE  TALENTS. 

charf^es  to  which  they  were  called,  and  when  they  should  have  been  the 
salt  to  salt  the  earth,  chose  rather  to  retire  into  caves  and  wildernesses, 
forsaking  their  brethren,  whom  they  were  called  to  serve  in  the  active 
ministries  of  love.* 

The  warning  then  is  addressed  to  such  as  might  be  tempted  to  fol- 
low after  this  goodness  solitary  and  particular,  instead  of  serving  their 
generation  according  to  the  will  of  God.  The  root  out  of  which  this 
mischief  grows  is  laid  bare  in  the  words  which  this  slothful  servant  utters, 
"Zwy/,  I  knew  thee  that  thou  art  a  hard  man?''  It  has  its  rise,  as 
almost  every  thing  else  that  is  evil,  in  a  false  view  of  the  character  of 
God.  For  we  must  not  understand  this  speech  as  an  excuse  framed 
merely  for  the  occasion,  but  it  is  the  true  out-speaking  of  the  inmo'st 
heart,  the  exact  expression  of  the  aspect  in  which  the  servant  did  actu- 
ally regard  his  lord.  The  churl  accounted  him  churlish,  thought  him 
even  such  an  one  as  himself:  he  did  not  believe  in  his  lord's  forgiving 
love,  and  in  his  gracious  acceptance  of  the  work  with  all  its  faults, 
which  was  done  for  him  out  of  a  true  heart,  and  with  a  sincere  desire  to 
please  him.  This  was  his  wilful  and  guilty  ignorance  concerning  the 
true  character  of  the  master  whom  he  was  called  to  sei-ve.  But  to  know 
God's  name  is  to  trust  in  him.  They  indeed  who  undertake  a  ministry 
in  his  Cliureh,  or  any  work  for  him,  are  well  aware  that  they  shall  com- 
mit manifold  mistakes  in  that  ministry,  which  they  might  avoid,  if  they 
declined  that  ministry  altogether, — even  many  sins  in  handling  divine 
things  which  they  might  escape,  if  they  wholly  refused  that  charge. f 

*  Augustine,  in  a  sermon  preached  on  the  anniversary  of  his  exaltation  to  the 
episcopal  dignity  {Scrm.  339,  c.  3),  makes  striking  use  of  this  parable,  while  he  is 
speaking  of  the  temptation,  whereof  he  was  conscious,  to  withdraw  from  the  active 
labor  in  the  Church,  and  to  cultivate  a  solitary  piety :  Si  non  erogem,  et  pecuniam 
ecrvcm,  turret  me  Evangelium.  Possem  enim  dicere :  Quid  mihi  est  tajdio  esse 
hominibus,  dicere  iniquis,  Iniqu^  agere  nolite,  sic  agite,  sic  agere  desistite  1  Quid 
mihi  est  oncri  esse  hominibus  1  Accepi  quomodo  vivam,  quomodo  jussus  sum, 
quoniodo  praeceptus  sum,  assignem  quomodo  accepi ;  de  aliis  me  reddere  rationem 
quo  mihi  1  Evangelium  me  terret.  Nam  ad  istam  securitatem  otiosissimam  nemo 
mo  vinccrct :  nihil  est  melius,  nihil  dulcius,  quam  divinum  scrutari,  nullo  strepente, 
thesaurum ;  dulce  est,  bonum  est.  Pnedicare,  arguere,  corripere,  ffidificare,  pro 
imoquoque  satagere,  magnum  onus,  magnum  pondus,  magnus  labor.  .  Quis  non  re- 
fugiat  istum  laborcm  1  Sed  terret  Evangelium.  And  again  {In  Ev.  Joh.,  Tract. 
10) :  Si  autcm  fucris  frigidus,  marcidus,  ad  te  solum  spectans,  et  quasi  tibi  suffi- 
ciens,  et  dicens  in  corde  tuo :  Quid  mihi  est  curare  aliena  peccata,  sufficit  mihi  anima 
mea,  ipsam  integram  servcni  Deo :  Eja  non  tibi  vcnit  in  mentem  servus  ille  qui 
abscondit  talentum  ct  noluit  erogare  ?  nunquid  enim  accusatus  est,  quia  perdidit, 
et  non  quia  sine  lucro  servavit  1  Compare  what  he  beautifully  says,  Enar.  in  Ps. 
xcix.  2;  and  also  De  Fide  ct  Opcr.,  c.  17. 

t  This  .sense  of  the  careful  and  accurate  handling  which  all  divine  things  re- 
quire, and  the  exceeding  gravity  of  a  ftmlt  therein,  though  very  liable  of  being 


THE  TALENTS.  227 

But  shall  those  who  are  competently  furnished  and  evidently  called,  be 
therefore  justified  or  excused  in  doing  so  ?  would  they  not,  so  acting, 
share  in  the  condemnation  of  this  servant?  would  they  not  testify  there- 
by that  they  thought  of  God,  as  he  thought  of  his  master — that  he  was 
a  hard*  lord — extreme  to  mark  what  was  amiss — -making  no  allow- 
ances, accepting  never  the  will  for  the  deed,  but  watching  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  least  failure  or  mistake  on  the  part  of  his  servants  ? 

Nor  does  the  sluggard  in  the  parable  stop  here.  If  only  he  may  roll 
off  a  charge  from  himself,  he  cares  not  for  affixing  one  to  his  lord.  In 
his  speech,  half  cowering  and  half  defying,  and  in  this  respect,  a  wonder- 
ful picture  of  the  sinner's  bearing  towards  God.  he  shrinks  not  from 
attributing  to  him  tlie  character  of  a  harsh  unreasonable  despot,  who 
requires  the  bricks  but  refuses  the  straw  (Exod.  v.  7),  who  would  reap 
what  he  has  not  sown,  and  gather  whence  he  has  not  strawed.f  In  these 
words  he  gives  evidence  that  he  as  entirely  has  mistaken  the  nature  of 
the  work  to  which  he  was  called,  as  the  character  of  the  master  for  whom 
it  should  have  been  done.:]:    In  the  darkness  of  his  heart  he  regards  the 


pleaded  as  here  by  the  slothful  and  the  false-hearted,  and  ever  needing,  even  when 
most  true,  to  be  balanced  by  other  thoughts  concerning  God,  is  yet  in  itself  a  high 
grace,  and  has  a  word  of  its  own  to  express  it.  fv\dfieia,  from  ed  Xa/xfidveiv,  those 
divine  things  being  contemplated  as  costly  yet  delicate  vessels,  which  must  needs 
be  handled  with  extreme  wariness  and  even  fear. 

*  The  (TKK-rtp6s  here  is  stronger  than  the  avari)p6i  of  Luke  xix.  21 ;  that  word 
being  sometimes  used  in  a  good  sense,  which  this  is  never ;  thus  Plutarch  :  iiv  <ru)- 
(ppaiv  Koi  a\)(m)p&s-  This  last  is  an  epithet  properly  applied  to  fruit  or  wine,  which 
is  crude,  unripe,  sour,  wanting  in  mellowness,  and  would  find  its  opposite  in  xpV<^- 
rSs  (Luke  v.  30),  so  the  Latin  austerus  continually,  which  is  opposed  to  the  dulcis. 
But  a-KKr}p6s  is  an  epithet  given  to  a  surface  which  is  at  once  dry  and  hard,  as 
througli  drought,  involving  alike  the  asper  and  the  durus,  and  is  opposed  to  /xaXa- 
k6s  and  vypSs.  Nabal  is  <r/cA.rjpbs  koI  ■trovT)p6s  (1  Sam.  xxv.  3,  LXX.)  churlish  and 
evil.  Terence  {Adclph.,  v.  4),  unfolds  the  ffK\T)p6s,  when  he  describes  one  as  Tristis, 
parens,  truculentus,  tenax.  The  words  are  discriminated  in  Titmann's  Synanyms, 
c.  10. 

t  "  Strawed'"  does  not  refer  to  the  strewing  of  the  seed,  for  then  he  would  but 
be  saying  the  same  thing  twice.  Rather  there  is  a  step  in  the  process  of  the  har- 
vest. '•  IVhere  thou  hast  not  strawed,"  or  better,  scattered  with  the  fan  on  the  bam 
floor,  there  expectest  thou  to  "gather"  with  the  rake  :  as  one  who  will  not  be  at 
the  trouble  to  purge  away  the  chaff,  yet  expects  to  gather  in  the  golden  grains  into 
his  store.  (Matt.  iii.  12.)  A(€<T(C(J/>7ri(roy,  the  word  here  used,  could  scarcely  be  ap- 
plied to  the  measured  and  orderly  scattering  of  the  sower's  seed.  It  is  rather  the 
dis])t'rsing.  making  to  fly  in  every  direction,  as  a  pursuer  the  routed  enemy  (Luke 
i.  51 ;  Acts  v.  .37) ;  or  as  the  won"  the  sheep  (Matt.  xxvi.  31),  or  as  the  Prodigal  his 
goods  (Luke  xv.  13  ;  xvi.  1) ;  or  as  here,  the  husbandman  the  chaff.  Thus  rightly 
Schott  on  this  iuaKSp-niaas:  Notionem  ventilandi  frumcntum  in  area  repositum 
exprimit. 

X  Aquinas  asserts  well  the  trae  doctrine,  which  this  servant  denies :  Deus  nihil 


228  THE  TALENTS. 

work  as  something  outward — as  something  to  be  done /or  God,  instead  of 
being  a  work  to  be  wrought  in  him,  or  ratlier,  which  he  would  work  in 
and  through  his  servants.  He  thought  that  God  called  to  a  labor,  and 
gave  no  ability  for  the  labor. — that  he  laid  on  a  task,  which  was  a  mere 
task,  and  put  no  joy  nor  consolation  into  the  hearts  of  them  that  fulfilled 
it :  no  wonder  then  that  he  should  shrink  from  it.  Thus,  he  goes  on 
to  say.  "I  was  afraid  ;''''*  he  justifies  the  caution  and  timidity  which 
he  had  shown,  and  how  it  was  that  he  would  attempt  nothing  and 
venture  upon  nothing:  he  feared  to  trade  on  that  talent,  lest  in  the' 
necessary  risks  of  buisness,  seeking  to  gain  other  he  might  lose  that 
one.  and  so  enrage  hiS  master  against  him ;  even  as  men  might  profess 
to  fear  to  lay  themselves  out  for  the  winning  of  other  souls,  lest,  so 
doing,  they  might  endanger  their  own, — "io,  there  thou  hast  that  is 
thine"f  Here  it  might  be  asked,  how  could  God's  gifts  be  hidden,  and 
yet  restored  to  him  entire ;  since  the  suifering  them  to  lie  idle  is  in  fact 
one  form  of  wasting  them  ?  In  reality  they  could  not  be  so  restored. 
It  is  only  that  men  imagine  they  can  be  given  back,  when  they  suppose 
that  keeping  the  negative  precepts  is  all  that  God  requires  of  them,  and 
that  doing  this  they  will  restore  to  him  his  gifts  entire,  as  they  received 
them.;}: 

requirit  ab  homine  nisi  bonum  quod  ipse  in  nobis  seminavit ;  and  Augustine,  put- 
ting the  same  truth  in  the  form  of  a  prayer  :  Da  quod  jubes,  et  jube  quod  vis. 

*  Hilary  {Comni.  in  Matth.,  in  loc.)  has  a  remarkable  use  of  the  words  "  /  was 
afraid."  It  is,  he  says,  the  voice  of  them  that  choose  to  abide,  as  the  Jew,  in  the 
law  and  in  the  spirit  of  bondage,  shrinking  from  the  liberty  and  activity  of  Chris- 
tian service  :  Timui  te,  tanquam  per  reverentiam  et  metuni  veterum  prseceptorum 
usu  Evangelicte  libertatis  abstineat. 

t  Cocceius :  Jactatio  superba  conservati  talenti  significat  fiduciam  et  securita- 
tem  ejus  qui  sibi  facile  satisfacit.     See  Suicer's  Thes.  s.  v.  rahavrov. 

X  There  is  an  instructive  Eastern  tale,  which  in  its  deeper  meaning  runs  re- 
markably parallel  to  this  parable.     It  is  as  follows  : 

There  went  a  man  from  home  :  and  to  his  neighbors  twain 

He  gave,  to  keep  for  him,  two  sacks  of  golden  grain. 

Deep  in  his  cellar  one  the  precious  charge  concealed ; 

And  forth  the  other  went  and  strewed  it  in  his  field. 

The  man  returns  at  last— asks  of  the  first  his  sack  : 

"  Here  take  it ;  'tis  the  same  ;  thou  hast  it  safely  back." 

Unharmed  it  shows  without ;  but  when  he  would  explore 

His  sack's  recesses,  corn  tlrcre  finds  he  now  no  more  : 

One  half  of  what  was  there  proves  rotten  and  decayed, 

Upon  the  other  half  have  worm  and  mildew  preyed. 

The  putrid  heap  to  him  in  ire  he  doth  return, 

Then  of  the  other  asks,  "  Where  is  my  sack  of  corn  I' 

Who  answered,  •'  Come  with  me  and  see^liow  it  has  sped"— 

And  took  and  showed  him  fields  with  waving  harvests  spread 

Then  cheerfully  the  man  laughed  out  and  cried,  "  This  one 

Had  insight,  to  make  up  for  the  other  that  had  none. 

The  letter  he  observed,  but  thou  the  precept's  sense, 

And  thus  to  thee  and  me  shall  profit  grow  frnm  hence  •  -• 

In  1  Mvest  thou  slialt  fill  two  sacks  of  corn  for  me, 

Thi    T^idue  of  right  remaias  in  full  for  thee." 


V      THE  TALENTS.  229 

But  his  lord  answers  him  on  his  own  grounds,  and  making  his  own 
mouth  condemn  him  (Job.  xv.  6 ;  2  Sara.  i.  16) ;  nor  does  he  take  the 
trouble  to  dispute  or  deny  the  truth  of  the  character  which  his  servant 
had  given  him  : — "  TJwu  tvicked  and  slothful  servant ;"  ••  vncked"  in 
that  he  defended  himself  by  calumniating  liis  lord,  and  '•'■  slotlifaV^''  as  his 
whole  conduct  has  shown,  '■•thou  kneivest  that  I  reap  ivJicre  I  sowed  not^ 
and  gather  where  I  had  not  strawed ; — that  is,  Be  it  so.  grant  me  to  be 
such  as  thou  describest,  severe  and  exacting,  yet  even  then  thou  art  not 
cleared,  for  thou  oughtest  to  have  done  me  justice  still ;  and  there  was  a 
safe  way,  by  which  thou  mightest  have  done  this,  with  little  or  no  peril 
to  thyself;  and  thereby  have  obtained  for  me,  if  not  the  large  gains,  which 
were  possible  througli  some  bolder  course,  yet  something,  some  small  but 
certain  return  for  my  moneys  ; — Thou  oughtest.  tlierefore,  to  have  put  my 
money  to  the  exchangers.^  and  tlten  at  my  coining  I  sliould  have  rerxived 
mine  oum  tviih  usury."*  This  putting  the  money  to  the  exchangers, 
Olshausen  ingeniously  explains :  '-Those  timid  natures  which  are  not 
suited  to  independent  labor  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  are  here  counselled 
at  least  to  attach  themselves  to  other  stronger  characters,  under  whose 
leading  they  may  lay  out  their  gifts   to  the  service  of  the  Church."t 

*  2vv  rSKCf),  with  increase.  So  fenus  is  explained  by  Varro,  h.  fetu  et  quasi  i 
fetura.  quildam  pecuniae  parientis  atque  increscentis.  To  estimate  how  great  the 
master's  gains  even  in  this  way  might  have  been,  we  must  kcej)  in  mind  the  liigh 
rates  of  interest  paid  in  anticjuity.  Set-  the  Diet,  of  Gr.  and  Rovi.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Inte- 
rest of  Money,  p.  523 ;  and  see  also  the  lively  chapter  in  Bkckkr's  Charikks,  v.  1, 
p.  237,  for  a  graphic  description  of  the  Tpa-jre^lrai.  the  bankers  of  antiquity. 

t  Cajetan  has  nearly  the  same  explanation  :  Intendit  per  hoc,  quod  si  non 
ausus  fuit  uti  dono  Dei  in  actionibus  nuilti  periculi,  uti  tamen  debuit  illo,  in  actio- 
nibus  in  quibus  est  lucrum  cum  parvo  periculo.  Teelman  (Co7«7?t. /«.  I/kc.  xvi.) 
has  a  curious  explanation  of  this  giving  the  money  to  the  rpaTTfCirai,  starting  from 
the  notion  that  the  business  of  these  monej'-changers  \yas  in  itself  and  necessarily 
unfair;  "  If  you  thought  me  this  unfair  man.  why  were  you  not  consistent  ? — why 
did  you  not  seek  for  me  the  gains  which  you  must  then  have  supposed  would  have 
been  welcome  to  me  1"  not  saying  this  as  though  he  would  have  had  him  so  to 
have  done,  but  only  convicting  him  of  conduct  inconsistent  with  his  own  a.ssertions. 
—It  is  an  interesting  question,  whether  the  saying  so  often  quoted  in  the  early 
Church  as  our  Lord's,  and  not  any  where  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament.  Tlvc- 
ff^e  SSki/xoi  (or  Ka\oi.  or  <pp6vifxoi)  rpanf^TTai  has  its  origin  here.  Many  have 
thouglit  they  found  it  in  this  passage,  but  it  is  ditlicult  to  see  on  what  ground,  ex- 
cept that  the  word  rpaire(7Tat  here  occurs.  The  point  of  that  exhortation  is  evi- 
dently this :  Be  as  experienced  money-changers  who  readily  distinguish  the  good 
from  the  bad  coin,  receiving  the  one  but  rejecting  the  other.  Now  in  this  parable, 
there  is  no  direct  or  indirect  comparison  of  the  discij)les  with  money-changers,  and 
such  an  exhortation  lies  wholly  aloof  from  its  aim  and  .scope.  The  words  can  as 
little  be  said  to  be  implicitly  contained  in  the  parable,  as  they  can  to  be  plainly 
read  in  the  text,  though  it  is  true  that  Slickr  (Tk'.i..  .s.  v.  Tpairt^rT)s).  defends  this 
view.     The  precept  would  be  much  more  easily  deduced  from  1  Thess.  v.  21,  22  j 


230  THE  TALENTS. 

This  explanation  has  the  advantage  that  it  makes  these  words  not 
merely  useful  to  add  vivacity  to  the  narrative,  as  the  natural  exclama- 
tion of  an  offended  master, — but  gives  them  likewise  a  spiritual  signifi- 
cance, which  is  not  generally  sought  in  them,  but  which,  if  they  yield  it 
easily  and  naturally,  must  by  no  means  be  rejected.  Certainly  this 
meaning  is  better  than  that  which  Jerome  proposes,  that  the  money- 
changers are  believers  in  general,  to  whom  the  intrusted  word  of  grace 
should  have  been  committed,  that  they,  trying  it,  and  rejecting  any 
erroneous  doctrine  which  might  be  admingled  with  it,  but  holding  fast 
what  was  good,  might  be  enriched  with  the  knowledge  of  Grod.  Such 
can  hardly  be  the  meaning,  for  that  is  the  very  thing  which  the  servant 
ought  to  have  done  in  the  first  instance,  boldly  to  have  laid  out  his  gift 
for  the  profit  and  edification  of  his  brethren ;  while  this  of  committing 
the  talent  to  the  money-changers  is  only  the  altern^itive  proposed  to  him, 
in  case  he  had  shrunk  from  that  other  and  more  excellent  way. 

And  hereupon,  his  doom  who  neither  in  one  way  or  the  other  had 
sought  his  master's  interests,  is  pronounced ;  it  consists  first,  in  the  loss 
of  the  talent  which  he  had  suffered  to  lie  idle, — "  Take^  therefofre,  the 
talent  from  him."*  We  have  here  a  limitation  of  Rom.  xi.  29.  This 
deprivation  may  be  considered  partly  as  the  directly  penal,  and  partly 
as  the  natural  consequence  of  his  sloth.  For  there  is  this  analogy 
between  the  course  of  things  in  the  natural  and  in  the  spiritual  world, 
that  as  a  limb  which  is  never  called  into  exercise  loses  its  strength  by 
degrees — its  muscles  and  sinews  disappear, — even  so  the  gifts  of  God, 
unexercised,  fade  and  fail  from  us :  ^'-From  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  even  that  which  lie  hath"*     And  on  the  other  contrary,  as 

even  as  we  find  71V,  Z6k.  rpaw.  sometimes  called  an  apostolic  saying,  attributed  by 
many  of  the  Fathers  not  to  the  Lord  but  to  one  of  his  apostles,  or  to  St.  Paul  by 
name,  and  by  some,  indeed;  even  inserted  before  this  very  passage, — for  examples, 
see  Suicer ;  and  the  whole  question  is  thoroughly  discussed  by  Hansel,  in  the 
Tki:ol.  Stud,  und  Krit..  for  1836,  p.  179.  He  maintains  this  latter  origin  of  the 
words.  See  also  Cotelerii  Pall.  Apostol.,  v.  1,  p.  249,  and  the  Annott.  in  Euseb., 
Oxford,  1842,  v.  1,  p.  930. — There  being  mention  of  interest  here,  rpaire^irtis  is  the 
fitter  word  than  KoXKv^i(rr4)s,  which,  however,  rightly  finds  place,  Matt.  xxi.  12; 
Mark  xi.  15.  Jerome  {Covim.  in  Matth.  xxi.  12,  13,)  has  a  singular,  but  erroneous 
derivation  of  the  last  word. 

*  Augustine  asks  here  (Eiiarr.  in  Ps.  xxxviii.  4) :  Quid  exspectare  debent,  qui 
cum  luxuria  consumserunt,  si  damnatur  qui  cum  pigritia  servaverunt  1  And  again, 
Intelligatur  jxcna  intervevsoris  ex  poeni  pigri. 

t  Clirysostom  {De  Christ.  Prec,  Con.  Anovi..  10)  has  two  other  comparisons,  to 
set  forth  that  the  grace  unused  will  quickly  depart :  "  For  as  the  corn,  if  it  be  let 
lie  for  ever  in  the  barns,  is  consumed,  being  devoured  of  the  worm ;  but  if  it  is 
brought  forth  and  cast  into  the  field,  is  nuiltiplied  and  renewed  again :  so  also  the 
spiritual  word,  if  it  be  evermore  shut  up  witliin  the  soul,  being  consumed  and 
eaten  into  by  envy  and  sloth,  and  decay,  is  quickly  extinguished ;  but,  if,  as  on  a 


THE  TALENTS.  231 

the  limb  is  not  wasted  by  strenuous  exertion,  but  rather  by  it  nerved 
and  strongtliened,  not  otherwise  is  it  also  with  the  gifts  of  God ;  they 
are  multiplied  by  being  laid  out :  "  Unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be 
given,  and  he  sJiall  have  abundance."  "  The  earth  which  bringeth 
forth  herbs  meet  for  them  by  whom  it  is  dressed,  receiveth  blessing," 
that  is,  a  farther  blessing,  the  gift  of  a  continued  fruitfulness  '•  from 
God."  (Heb.  vi.  7.)  Nor  is  it  merely  that  the  one  receives  more,  and 
the  other  loses  what  he  had ;  but  that  very  gift  which  the  one  loses  the 
other  receives;  he  is  enriched  with  a  talent  taken //w/i  the  other;  while 
on  his  part,  another  takes  his  crown.  We  see  this  continually;  one  by 
the  providence  of  God  steps  into  the  place  and  the  opportunities  which 
another  left  unused,  and  so  has  forfeited.     (1  Sam.  xv.  28.) 

For  this  taking  away  of  the  unused  talent  which  will  find  its  com- 
plete consummation  at  the  day  of  judgment,  yet  is  also  in  this  present 
time  continually  going  forward.  And  herein  is  mercy,  that  it  is  not  done 
all  at  once,  but  by  little  and  little,  so  that  till  all  is  withdrawn,  there  is 
still  the  opportunity  of  recovering  all :  at  each  successive  withdrawal, 
there  is  some  warning  to  hold  fast  what  still  is  left,  "to  strengthen  the 
things  which  remain  that  are  ready  to  die."  It  is  quite  true  that  at  each 
successive  stage  of  the  decline,  the  effort  required  for  this  is  greater, — 
the  strength  for  it  less :  but  to  complain  of  this,  is  to  complain  that  sin 
is  sin,  that  it  has  any  curse  with  it ;  and  however  this  is  the  mournful 
truth,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  it  remains  always  possible,  till  the  last  spark 
is  extinguished,  to  blow  up  that  spark  again  into  a  flame:  even  the  sense 
of  the  increasing  darkness  may  be  that  which  shall  arouse  the  man  to  a 
serious  sense  of  his  danger,  and  to  the  need  of  an  earnest  revival  of 
God's  work  in  his  soul.     But  this  servant  had  never  awoke  to  the  sense 


fertile  field,  it  is  scattered  on  the  souls  of  the  bretliren,  the  trcasiu-c  is  multiplied 
to  them  that  receive  it,  and  to  him  that  possessed  it; — and  as  a  fou.ntain  from 
which  water  is  continually  drawn  forth,  is  thereby  rather  purified,  and  hubbies  up 
the  more ;  but  being  stanched  fails  altogether,  so  the  spiritual  gift  and  word  of 
doctrine,  if  it  be  continually  drawn  forth,  and  if  who  will  has  liberty  to  share  it, 
rises  up  the  more  ;  but  if  restrained  by  en\y  and  a  grudging  spirit,  diiuinishes,  and 
at  la.st  perishes  altogether." — Augustine  too,  (or  Ca;sarius,  as  the  Benedietine 
editors  aflirm,  Aufunsf.  Opp.,  v.  5,  p.  81,  Af)pendix)  has  an  admirable  discourse  on 
the  manner  in  which  gifts  multiply  througli  being  imparted,  and  diminish  through 
being  withholden.  It  is  throughout  an  application  of  the  story  of  tiie  widow  (2 
Kin.  iv.)  who.se  two  sons  Elisha  redeemed  from  bondage,  by  multiplying  tlie  oil 
which  she  had  in  her  single  vessel  so  long  as  she  provided  other  vessels  into  which 
to  i)our  it.  but  which,  when  she  had  no  more,  at  once  stopped: — et  ait  Scrijitura 
stetisse  oleum,  posteaciuam  ubi  poneret,  non  invenit.  Sic,  dilectissimi  fratres,  tan- 
diu  caritas  augetur  quandiu  tribuitur.  Et  ideo  etiam  ex  industria  debenuis  vasa 
quaererc,  ubi  oleum  possumus  infundere,  quia  probavimus  quod  dum  aliis  infundi- 
raus,  plus  habemus.    Vasa  caritatis,  homines  sunt. 


232  THE  TALENTS. 

of  his  clanger  till  it  was  too  late, — till  all  was  irrevocably  lost ;  and  now 
it  is  said,  not  merely  that  he  shall  forfeit  his  talent,  but  yet  further, 
^^Cast  ye  the  unjyrofitajile  servant  into  outer  darkness:  tJiere  shall  be 
wailing  and  gnashing  of  teethP  While  there  is  light  and  joy  and 
feasting  within,  to  celebrate  the  master's  return,  the  darkness  without 
shall  be  his  portion. 

The  comparison  of  the  causes  which  led  to  this  servant's  exclusion, 
and  those  which  led  to  the  exclusion  of  the  foolish  virgins,  is  full  of 
important  instruction  for  all;  the  virgins  erred  through  a  vain  over- 
confidence,  this  servant  through  an  under-confidence  that  was  equally 
vain  and  sinful.  They  were  overbold,  he  was  not  bold  enough.  Thus, 
as  in  a  chart,  the  two  temptations,  as  regards  our  relation  to  God  and  his 
service, — the  two  opposing  rocks  on  which  faith  is  in  danger  of  making 
shipwreck,  are  laid  down  for  us,  that  we  may  avoid  them  both.  Those 
virgins  thought  it  too  easy  a  thing  to  serve  the  Lord, — this  servant 
thought  it  too  hard ; — they  esteemed  it  but  as  the  going  forth  to  a 
festival  which  should  presently  begin,  he  as  a  hard,  dreary,  insupport- 
able work  for  a  thankless  master.  In  them,  we  have  the  perils  that 
beset  the  sanguine,  in  him  the  melancholic,  complexion.  They  were 
representatives  of  a  class  needing  such  warnings  as  this :  "  Strait  is  the 
gate,  and  narrow  is  the  way,  that  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that 
find  it "  (Matt.  vii.  14);  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling"  (Phil.  ii.  12);  "If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself"  (Matt.  xvi.  24).  He  was  representative  of  a  class  that 
would  need  to  be  reminded :  "  Ye  have  not  received  the  spirit  of 
bondage  again  to  fear"  (Rom.  viii.  15);  "Ye  are  not  come  unto  the 
mount  that  might  be  touched,   and  that  burned  with  fire,  nor  unto 

blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest ; but  ye  are  come  unto 

Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God, and  to  Jesus, 

the  Mediator  of  the  new  Covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling,  that 
speakcth  better  things  than  that  of  Abel"  (Heb.  xii.  18,  22,  24). 


XV. 
THE    SEED   GROWING   SECRETLY. 

Mark  iv.  26-29. 

This  is  the  only  parable  which  is  peculiar  to  St.  Mark.  Like  that  of 
the  Leaven,  of  which  it  seems  to  occup}  the  place,  it  declares  the  secret- 
invisible  energy  of  the  divine  word, — that  it  has  life  in  itself  and'will 
unfold  itself  according  to  the  law  of  its  own  being ;  and  besides  what  it 
has  in  common  with  that  parable,  declares  further,  that  this  word  of  the 
kingdom  has  that  in  it  which  will  allow  it  safely  to  be  left  to  itself. 
The  main  difficulty  in  the  parable  is  the  following :  Whom  shall  we 
understand  by  the  man  casting  seed  in  the  ground  ? — is  it  the  Son  of 
man  himself,  or  those  who  in  subordination  to  him  declare  the  Gospel 
of  the  kingdom  ?  There  are  embarrassments  attending  either  explana- 
tion. If  we  say  that  the  Lord  points  to  himself  as,the  sower  of  the  seed, 
how  then  shall  we  explain  ver.  27  ? — it  cannot  be  said  of  him  that  he 
knows  not  how*  the  seed  sown  in  the  hearts  of  his  people  springs  and 
grows  up ;  since  it  is  only  his  continual  presence  by  his  Spirit  in  their 
hearts  which  causes  it  to  grow  at  all.  Neither  can  he  fitly  be  compared 
to  a  sower  who,  having  scattered  his  seed,  goes  his  way  and  occupies 
himself  in  other  business,  feeling  that  it  lies  henceforth  beyond  the 
sphere  of  his  power  to  further  the  prosperity  of  the  seed,  but  that  it 
must  be  left  to  itself  and  its  own  indwelling  powers,  and  that  his  part 
will  not  begin  again  till  the  time  of  the  harvest  has  come  round.  This 
is  no  fit  description  of  him,  wlio  is  not  merely  the  author  and  finisher  of 
our  faith,  but  who  also  conduct.s  it  through  all  its  intermediate  stages : 
and  without  whose  blessing  and  active  co-operation  it  would  be  totally 
unable  to  make  any,  even  the  slightest,  progress.    Or  on  the  other  hand, 

*  It  is  a  poor  way  to  get  out  of  this  difficulty  to  say  witli  Erasmus,  that,  "he 
knowctii  not  how,"  ought  rather  to  be,  ''it.  knowetli  not  liow," — tliat  is,  tlie  seed 
knowcth  not  how  it  grows  itself;  since,  as  no  one  could  have  supposed  that  it  did, 
who  would  think  of  denying  it  1 


234  THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY. 

shall  we  say  that  the  sower  of  the  seed  is  here  one  of  the  inferior 
ministers  and  messengers  of  the  truth,  and  that  the  purpose  of  the 
parable  is  to  teach  such,  that  after  the  word  of  life,  of  which  they  are 
bearers,  has  found  place  in  any  heart,  they  may  be  of  good  confidence, 
trusting  to  its  own  powers  to  unfold  itself,  for  it  has  a  life  of  its  own, — 
a  life  independent  of  him  who  may  have  been  the  original  instrument 
for  the  communication  of  that  life,  even  as  a  child,  after  it  is  born,  has  a 
life  no  longer  dependent  on  that  of  the  parents,  from  which  yet  it  was 
originally  derived  ?  But  then,  with  this  explanation,  there  is  another 
and  not  slighter  difficulty ;  for  at  ver.  29  it  is  said,  "  tvlien  tJie  fruit  is 
h-ouglit  forth,  immediately  lie "  (the  same  person  clearly  who  sowed 
the  seed)  '■•puttcth  in  the  sicJde,  because  the  harvest  is  come.''''  Of  whom 
can  it  be  said,  save  of  the  Son  of  man,  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he 
putteth  in  the  sickle, — that  he  gathereth  his  people,  when  they  are  ripe 
for  glory, — when  they  have  finished  their  course, — when  the  work  of 
faith  has  been  accomplished  in  their  hearts, — into  everlasting  habita- 
"tions?  So  that  the  perplexity  is  this, — If  we  say  that  the  Lord  means 
himself  by  the  principal  personage  in  the  parable,  then  something  is 
attributed  to  him  which  seems  unworthy  of  him,  less  than  to  him  rightly 
appertains ;  while  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  take  him  to  mean  those  that, 
in  subordination  to  himself,  are  bearers  of  his  word,  then  something 
more,  a  higher  prerogative,  as  it  would  seem,  is  attributed,  than  can  be 
admitted  to  belong  rightly  to  any,  save  only  to  him.*  I  cannot  see  any 
perfectly  satisfactory  way  of  escape  from  this  perplexity.  It  will  hardly 
do  to  say,  for  the  purpose  of  evading  the  embarrassments  which  beset  the 
first  explanation,  that«the  circumstances  mentioned  at  ver.  27,  are  not  to 
be  pressed,  and  that  they  belong,  not  to  the  body  itself,  but  only  to  the 
drapery,  of  the  parable ;  for  clearly  there, — in  the  sower  absenting  him- 
self after  he  has  committed  the  seed  to  the  ground,  and  in  its  growing 
without  him, — is  the  very  point  and  moral  of  the  whole,  and  to  strike 
out  that,  would  be  as  the  striking  out  of  its  right  eye,  leaving  it 
altogetlier  dark. 

Not  admitting  then  this  too  convenient  explanation,  I  will  yet  take 
the  parable  as  having  reference  in  the  first  place,  though  not  exclusively, 
to  the  Lord  himself,  the  great  Sower  of  the  seed,  and  it  will  then  remain 
to  see  how  far  the  acknowledged  difficulties  are  capable  of  being  removed 
or  mitigated.  It  commences  thus  : — '•  So  is  tlie  kingdom  of  God,  as  if 
a  man  should  cast  seed  into  the  grouml,  and  should  sleep,  and  rise  night 
and  day}^     By  these  last  words  it  is  agreed  among  interpreters, — old 

*  It  would  be  unjust  to  deprive  Strauss  {hchen  Jesio,  v.  1,  p.  664)  of  the  glory 
of  his  theory  concerning  this  parable,— namely,  that  it  is  another  and  imperfect 
version  of  that  of  the  Tares,  only  with  the  circwnstance  of  the  tares  left  out ! 


THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY.  235 

and  new,  almost  without  exception, — that  is  signified  not  his  carefulness 
after  having  sown  the  seed,  but  his  absence  of  such  an  after-careful- 
ness ;*  he  does  not  think  it  necessary  to  keep  watch  over  his  seed  after 
it  has  been  cast  on  the  ground,  but  he  sleeps  securely  by  night,  and  by 
day  he  rises  and  goes  about  his  ordinary  business,  leaving  with  full  con- 
fidence the  seed  to  itself ;  which  meanwhile  "  should  spring  and  grow 
up.  lie  knoweth  twt  how."  These  words  have  no  difficulty, — on  the  con- 
trary, are  full  of  most  important  instruction, — so  long  as  we  apply  them, 
as  no  doubt  we  fairly  may,  to  those  who  under  Christ  are  teachers  in  his 
Church.  They  are  here  implicitly  bidden  to  have  faith  in  the  word 
which  they  preach, — in  the  seed  which  they  sow,  for  it  is  the  seed  of 
God ;  when  it  has  found  place  in  a  heart,  they  are  not  to  be  tormented 
with  anxiet}^  concerning  the  final  issue,  but  rather  to  have  confidence  in 
its  indwelling  power  and  might,!  not  supposing  that  it  is  they  who  are 
to  keep  it  alive,  and  that  it  can  only  live  through  them  ;  for  this  of 
maintaining  its  life  is  God's  part  and  not  theirs,  and  he  undertakes  to 
fulfil  it.  They  are  instructed  also  to  rest  satisfied  that  the  seed  should 
grow  and  spring  up  without  their  knowing  exactly  how ;  let  them  not  be 
searching  at  its  roots  to  see  how  they  have  stricken  into  the  soil,  nor  seek 
prematurely  to  anticipate  the  shooting  of  the  blade,  or  the  forming  of  the 
corn  in  the  ear ; — for  the  mystery  of  the  life  of  God  in  any  and  in  every 
heart  is  unfathomable, — any  attempt  to  determine  that  its  course  shall  be 
this  way,  or  shall  be  that  way,  is  only  mischievous.  It  has  a  law,  indeed, 
for  its  orderly  development,  ^^Jirst  the  bhide,  tlten  the  car.  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  car^^  but  that  law  is  hidden ;  and  as  manifold  as  are  the 
works  of  God  in  nature,  so  that  they  never  exactly  repeat  themselves,  so 
manifold  also  are  they  in  grace.  Therefore  let  the  messengers  of  the 
Gospel  be  content  that  the  divine  word  should  grow  in  a  mysterious 


*  So  Pole  {Syrwps.,  in  loc.)  in  a  passage  woven  out  of  several  commentators  : 
Semente  factd  transigit  securus  noctes  ct  dies,  segetem  Deo  committens,  iiec  dubi- 
tans  quin  gorminet,  ipse  agens  alia  vita*  nuiiiia.  Tlie  only  interpreter  that  I  know, 
who  takes  an  opposite  view,  is  Tlieoplijiact.  who  iinderstands  the  rising  night  and 
day  to  mark  the  continual  watchfulness  of  Christ  over  his  Church.  But  what  then 
will  the  sleeping  mean  1  and,  moreover,  this  explanation  goes  directly  contrary  to 
the  whole  aim  and  purpose  of  the  parable. 

t  Calvin  brings  forward  this  side  of  the  truth,  though  an  important  one,  yet  too 
exclusively,  when  he  thus  explains  the  parable:  Sermonem  ad  verbi  niinistros 
dirigit  ne  frigidius  muneri  suo  incumbant  quia  non  statim  laboris  fructus  ap|)aret. 
Ergo  illis  agricolas  ad  imitandum  proponit,  qui  sub  spe  metendi  semen  in  terram 
projiciunt.  ncque  anxia,  inquietudine  torquentur,  sed  eunt  cubitum  ct  surgunt,  hoc 
est.  pro  more  intenti  sunt  quotidiano  labori,  et  se  nocturnd  quietc  reficiunt,  donee 
tandem  suo  teni]iure  matureseat  seges.  Ergo  quamvis  vcrbi  semen  ad  tenipus  suf- 
focatum  lateat  jubet  tamen  Christus  bono  animo  esse  pios  doctorcs,  ne  diflidentia 
illis  alacritatem  uiinuat. 


236  THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY. 

manner,  and  one  of  which  the  processes  are  hidden  from  them,  and 
believing  that  it  is  a  Divine  power  and  not  a  human,  let  them  be  of 
good  courage  concerning  the  issue,  and  having  sown  the  seed,  commit 
the  rest  to  God  in  faith,  being  confident  that  he  will  bring  his  own  work 
to  perfection.  Of  course  this  is  not  meant  as  tbough  they  are  not  to 
follow  up  the  work  which  has  been  through  their  instrumentality  com- 
menced. For.  as  when  it  is  said  "  the  eurth  hringctli,  fortli  fruit  of 
Juvself."  this  does  not  exclude  the  rain,  and  sun,  and  all  other  favorable 
influences,  so  neither,  when  we  say  that  the  seed  of  God  implanted  in 
any  heart  has  life  of  its  own.  is  it  hereby  implied  that  it  will  not  require 
the  nourishment  suitable  for  it. — nay,  rather  it  is  aflBrmed  that  it  will 
require  it ;  were  it  a  dead  thing  it  would  require  nothing  of  the  kind, 
but  because  it  is  living,  it  has  need  of  that  whereon  it  may  feed.  But 
then  it  is  a  different  thing  to  impart  life,  and  to  impart  the  sustenance 
for  life :  this  latter  the  Church  has  still  to  do  for  her  children,  but  then 
it  is  in  faith  that  they  have  a  life  of  their  own  once  given,  and  con- 
tinually maintained  from  on  bigh,  by  whicb  they  can  assimilate  to 
themselves  this  spiritual  food  provided  for  them,  and  draw  nutriment 
from  it. 

But  it  still  remains  to  consider,  in  what  sense  that  which  is  said  of 
leaving  the  seed  to  itself  can  be  affirmed  of  Christ.  Olshausen  suggests 
this  explanation  of  the  difficulties  above  noted.  It  is  true,  he  says,  that 
the  inner  spiritual  life  of  men  is  never  in  any  stage  of  its  development 
without  the  care  and  watchfulness  of  the  Lord  who  first  communicated 
that  life :  yet  are  there  two  moments  when  he  may  be  said  especially  to 
visit  the  soul ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  spiritual  life,  which  is  the  seed- 
time, and  again  when  he  takes  his  people  to  himself,  which  is  their  time 
of  harvest.*  Between  these  times,  lies  a  period  in  which  the  work  of 
the  Lord  is  going  forward  without  any  such  manifest  interpositions  on 
his  part — not  indeed  without  the  daily  supply  of  his  Spirit,  and  the  daily 
ordering  of  his  providence,  but  so  as  that  he  does  not  put  to  his  hand  so 
plainly  and  immediately  as  at  those  two  cardinal  moments.  And  the 
difficulty  will  be  slighter  when  we  make  application  of  the  parable, — as 

*  "We  may  compare  Job  v.  26  :  "  Thou  shalt  come  to  thy  grave  in  a  full  age, 
like  as  a  shock  of  corn  cometh  in  his  season."  There,  however,  it  is  rather  said, 
that  the  favored  of  God  shall  not  die  till  they  have  known  the  fulness  of  earthly 
blessing,  till  they  have  reached  Abraham's  '■  good  old  age."  and  (if  one  may  use 
the  imago  not  offensively)  retire  as  satisfied  guests  from  life's  feast.  But  in  oxu* 
parable  consistently  with  the  higher  dispen.sation  which  looks  to  higher  blessings. 
it  is  rather  affirmed,  that  the  faithfnl  are  not  taken  away  while  yet  the  work  of 
grace  is  incomplete  in  them,  while  yet  Christ  is  not  fully  formed  in  them,  that  in  this 
respect  there  is  a  provident  love  ordering  their  death  as  well  as  their  life,  that  it  is 
only  ■ichcii  Oie  fruit  is  brought  forth."  that  Christ  •'  putteth  in  the  sickle." 


THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY.  237 

undoubtedly  we  are  bound  to  do, — to  the  growth  and  progress  of  the 
universal  Chureh,  and  not  only  to  that  of  the  individual  soul.  The  Lord 
at  lii.s  first  coming  in  the  flesh  sowed  the  word  of  tlie  kingdom  in  the 
world,  planted  a  Churcli  therein,  which  having  done  he  witlidrew  him- 
self; the  heavens  received  him  till  tlic  time  of  the  consummation  of  all 
things.  Many  and  many  a  time  since  then  tlie  cry  has  ascended  in  his 
ears,  •'  0  that  thou  wouldest  rend  the  heavens,  that  thou  wouldest  come 
down  !" — often  it  has  seemed  to  man  as  though  tlie  hour  of  interference 
had  arrived,  as  though  his  Church  were  at  its  last  gasp,  at  the  point  to 
die,  as  though  its  enemies  were  about  to  prevail  against  it,  and  to  extin- 
guish it  for  ever,  unless  he  appeared  for  its  deliverance.  Yet  he  has  not 
come  forth,  he  has  left  it  to  surmount  its  obstacles,  not  indeed  without 
his  mighty  help,  but  without  his  visible  interference.  He  has  left  the 
divine  seed,  the  plant  which  he  has  planted,  to  grow  on  by  night  and  by 
day.  through  storm  and  through  sunshine,  increasing  secretly  with  the 
increase  of  God ;  and  will  let  it  so  continue,  till  it  has  borne  and  brought 
to  maturity  all  its  appointed  fruit.  And  only  then,  when  the  harvest  of 
the  world  is  ripe,  when  the  number  of  his  elect  people  is  accomplished, 
will  he  again  the  second  time  appear  unto  salvation,  thrusting  in  his 
sickle,  and  reaping  the  earth,  and  gathering  the  wheat  into  his  barns.* 
The  convenience  of  interpreting  the  parable  altogether,  and  taking  it 
in  its  whole  object  and  aim  at  a  single  view,  has  caused  one  or  two  less 
important  circumstances  to  be  passed  over,  which  yet  it  might  be  well 
not  to  If'uve  quite  without  notice.  When  it  is  said  that  "  the  earth  bring- 
eth  fort] I.  fruit  of  Jiersclf^^  it  may  excite  surprise  that  it  is  not  rather  said, 
— The  seed  groweth  and  springeth  up  of  itself;  for  that,  strictly  speak- 
ing, is  the  doctrine  which  the  Lord  is  now  teaching :  and  if  the  earth  be 
here,  as  it  must  be,  the  heart  of  man,  it  is  not  there,  but  in  the  word  of 
God  which  is  sown  there,  that  the  living  power  resides.  But  the  Lord's 
object,  in  using  the  expression,!  is  pointedly  to  exclude  the  agency  of 

*  Grotins  :  Sensiis  mihi  videtur  esse  perspicuus  :  Christum  i  factft^  semente  ad 
messis  t^'iiipus  agro  a.spectabiliter  non  adfuturum. 

t  AvToixdrij.  The  word,  derived  from  avrSs,  and  the  obsolete  /uoo).  desidero,  is 
one  of  singular  fitness  and  beauty.  Elsewhere  it  occurs  but  once  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament.* (Acts  xii.  10.  Cf.  Jo.sh.  vi.5  LXX.)  It  is  oflen  used  by  classic  authors 
to  describi'  tlie  sjwntAneous  bringing  forth  of  the  earth  in  the  golden  age,  during 
the  paradisiaeal  state  anterior  to  the  change  marked  Gen.  iii.  17.  Yet  here  it  is 
not  (  xaetly  correct  to  make,  as  has  been  done,  the  avTOfiaTr]  yij  ^aKafiaros  yrj  of 
Soi)hocles  Antig.  ZSd:  for  leaving  out  of  account  that  that  does  mean  the  earth 
which  brings  forth  without  labor,  but  which  is  never  weary  of  bringing  forth,  it 
besides  is  not  the  notion  of  jjrevious  labor  bestowed  on  the  soil  which  is  here  ex- 
cluded—but of  ulterior  carefulness.  In  the  next  verse.  taurJv  must  be  supplied 
after  irooaS^.  Virgil  will  then  have  exactly  the  same  idiom  : 
Multa  adeo  gelida  melius  ae  node  dederunt. 


238  THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY. 

the  sower,  at  least  a  continuous  agency  on  his  part  of  the  same  kind  aa 
he  exercises  at  the  first,  and  this  done  he  is  not  careful  for  moi-e. — The 
three  stages  of  spiritual  growth  implied  in  "  the  hlade^'  "  tlie.  ear^^  and 
'■'■the  full  corn  in  the  ear,^^  suggest  a  comparison  of  this  passage  with  such 
as  1  John  ii.  12-14,  where  the  apostle  in  like  manner  divides  the  faithful 
into  "little  children,"  "young  men,"  and  "fathers,"  evidently  according 
to  the  different  degrees  of  progress  which  they  have  made  in  the  spiritual 
life. With  ver.  29  we  may  compare  Kev.  xiv.  14,  15  ;  and  the  compari- 
son supplies  an  additional  reason  why  we  should  not  rest  satisfied  with 
the  application  of  the  parable  to  any  less  than  the  Son  of  man  himself, — 
"  And  I  looked,  and  behold  a  white  cloud,  and  upon  the  cloud  one  sat, 
like  unto  the  Son  of  man,  having  on  his  head  a  golden  crown,  and  in  his 
hand  a  sharp  sickle.  And  another  angel  came  out  of  the  temple,  crying 
with  a  loud  voice  to  him  that  sat  on  the  cloud,  Thrust  *  in  thy  sickle  and 
reap :  for  the  time  is  come  for  thee  to  reap :  for  the  harvest  of  the  earth 
is  ripe :" — and  the  entire  parable  gives  the  same  encouragement  which 
St.  Peter  means  to  give,  when  he  addresses  the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus, 
as,  "  being  born  again  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  by 
the  word  of  God  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever,"  and  that  whole  pas- 
sage (1  Pet.  i.  23-25)  supplies  a  parallel  than  which  no  apter  could  be 
found  in  the  entire  circle  of  Scripture  for  the  parable  which  we  have 
been  now  considering. 

*  This  passage  also  shows  us  that  Speiravov  is  not  here,  as  so  many  say,  a  part 
of  the  whole,  and  in  place  of  ^epio-Tas.  There  is  no  argument  for  this  to  be  derived 
from  the  word  aTroo-TtWn  here,  which  is  not  stronger  than  the  tt4ix\^ov  there,  where 
yet  it  is  plain  that  the  Lord  is  imagined  as  in  his  own  person  the  reaper ;  and  com- 
pare Joel  iii.  13,  LXX.,  elaTroo-TeiAoTe  Speiraya.     So  in  Latin,  immittere  falcem. 


XVI. 
THE    TWO   DEBTORS. 

Luke  vii.  41-43. 

We  may  affirm  with  tolerable  certainty  that  the  two  first  Evangelists 
and  the  last,  in  all  their  relations  of  our  blessed  Lord's  anointing,  refer 
to  one  and  the  same  event.  (Matt.  xxvi.  7 ;  Mark  xiv.  8  ;  John  xii.  3.) 
But  the  question  whether  St.  Luke  narrates  the  same  circumstance,  and 
the  woman  here,  " ichich  ivas  a  sinner"  be  Mary  the  sister  of  Lazarus, 
which  then  must  follow,  is  more  difi&cult,  and  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  variety  of  opinion  from  the  earliest  times  in  the  Church.  The 
main  arguments  for  the  identity  of  all  the  relations  are,  first,  the  name 
Simon,  as  tliat  of  the  giver  of  the  feast  in  one  place  (Luke  vii.  40),  and 
most  probably  so  in  the  other,  in  which  he  appears  as  the  master  of  the 
house  where  it  was  given  (Matt.  xxvi.  6) ;  secondly,  the  seeming  unlike- 
lihood that  twice  the  Lord  should  have  been  honored  in  so  very  unusual 
a  manner  :  and  thirdly,  the  strange  coincidence,  as  it  would  otherwise  be, 
that  in  each  case  there  should  liave  been  on  the  part  of  some  present  a 
misinterpretation  of  the  thing  done,  an  offence  taken. 

To  these  arguments,  however,  it  may  be  answered  that  the  name 
Simon  was  of  much  too  frequent  use  among  the  Jews  for  any  stress  to  be 
laid  upon  the  sameness  of  the  name.  Again,  that  the  anointing  of  the 
feet  with  odors  or  with  ointments,  though  not  so  common  as  the  anoint- 
ing of  the  head,  yet  was  not  in  itself  something  without  precedent,*  the 

*  Thus  Curtius  of  the  Indian  monarchs  (1.  8,  c.  9) :  Denitis  soleis  otloribus  illi- 
nuntur  pcdos.  and  Plutarcli  makes  mention,  though  on  a  very  peculiar  occasion,  of 
wine  and  sweet-smelling  essences  as  used  for  this  jjurposc.  (Bkckkh"s  C/iarikks, 
V.  1,  p.  428.)  The  custom  of  liaving  the  sandals  taken  off  by  those  in  attendance 
before  meals,  which  would  render  the  service  of  the  woman  easy  and  natural  to  be 
done,  is  frequently  alluded  to  by  classic  writers.    Thus  Terence : 

Adcurrunt  servi,  soccos  detrahunt, 
Inde  alii  fesiinare,  lectos  stemere, 
Coenam  apparare ; 


240  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

only  remarkable  coincidence  here  being,  that  Mary  the  sister  of  Lazarus, 
and  the  woinau  "  wliicli,  tvas  a  si?i/i€r,"  should  have  each  wiped  the  feet 
of  the  Lord  with  the  hairs  of  her  head.  (Luke  vii.  38;  John  xii.  3.) 
Now  if  this  had  been  any  merely  fantastic  honor  paid  to  the  Lord, 
which  to  ofler  would  scarcely  have  occurred  to  more  persons  than  one, 
we  might  well  wonder  to  find  it  twice,  and  on  two  independent  occasions, 
repeated ; — but  take  it  as  an  expression  of  homage,  of  reverence  and 
love,  such  as  would  naturally  rise  out  of  the  deepest  and  truest  feelings 
of  the  human  heart,  and  then  its  recurrence  is  no  wise  wonderful. 
And  such  it  is ;  in  the  hair  is  the  glory  of  the  woman  (see  1  Cor.  xi.  15), 
long  beautiful  tresses  having  evermore  been  held  as  her  chiefest  adorn- 
ment ;*  they  are  in  the  human  person  highest  in  place  and  in  honor, — 
while  on  the  contrary  the  feet  are  lowest  in  both.  What  then  was  this 
service,  but  the  outward  expression,  and  incorporation  in  an  act,  of  the 
inward  truth,  that  the  highest  and  chiefest  of  man's  honor  and  glory  and 
beauty  were  lower  and  meaner  than  the  lowest  that  pertained  to  the  Son 
of  God  ;  that  tliey  only  found  their  true  place  when  acknowledging  their 
subjection  and  doing  service  to  him?  And  what  wonder  that  the  Lord, 
who  called  out  all  that  was  deepest  and  truest  in  the  human  heart,  who 
awoke  in  it.  as  none  else  might  ever  do,  feelings  of  the  warmest  love  and 
profouudest  reverence,  should  twice f  have  been  the  object  of  this  honor? 
Yet  was  it  an  honor,  we  may  observe,  with  some  diiferences  in  the  mo- 
tives which  called  it  forth.  Once,  in  the  case  of  Mary  the  sister  of  Laz- 
arus, the  immediately  impelling  cause  was  intense  gratitude, — she  had 
found  the  words  of  Christ,  words  of  eternal  life  to  herself,  and  he  had 
crowned  his  gifts  to  her  by  giving  back  to  her  a  beloved  brother,  whom 
she  now  beheld  restored  to  life  and  health  before  her  ;  the  pound  of  oint- 
ment "very  costly  ":[:  which  she  brought,  was  a  thank-offering  from  her. 
and  as  less  of  shame  was  mingled  in  her  feelings,  she  anointed  both  her 

and  in  all  the  ancient  bas-reliefs  and  pictures  illustrative  of  the  subject,  we  see  the 
guests  reclinin-;  with  their  feet  bare.  (See  the  Did.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v. 
Coena,  p.  2-53.) 

*  So  the  Latin  poet :  Quod  primnm  furmcs  decus  est,  cecidere  capilli.  And  of 
nearly  shnilaru.ses  of  the  hair  in  extreme  humiliation  and  deprecation  of  the  divine 
anger  we  have  abundant  examples  in  profane  history.  Thus  Livy,  1.  3,  c.  7 :  Stra- 
tae  passim  matres  crinibus  templa  verrentcs  veniam  irarum  cielcstium  exposcunt.  Cf. 
Polybius,  1.  9,  c.  6. 

t  Here,  as  in  so  many  other  places,  Strauss  (Lcben  Jcsu,  v.  1,  p.  782),  like  one 
before  him.  murmurs  against  the  evangelical  history,  crying,  "  To  what  purpose  is 
this  waste  V  as  though  that  history  could  not  but  be  wrong  which  was  thus  prodi- 
gal in  relating  honors  done  to  the  Saviour. 

I  Gregory  the  Great,  applying  the  "  very  costly"  to  this  history,  says  beauti- 
fully {Hoj,i.  33  //(  Evang.)  :  Consideravit  quid  fecit,  et  noluit  moderari  quid  faceret. 
The  whole  discourse  is  full  of  beauty. 


THE  TWO  DEBTORS.  241 

Lord's  feet  and  also  his  head.  But  what  brought  this  woman  with  the 
alabaster  box  of  ointment  to  Jesus,  was  the  earnest  yearning  after  the 
forgiveness  of  her  sins,  and  slie,  in  Uer  deep  shame  and  abasement  of 
soul  before  him,  presumed  not  to  approach  hin  nearer  than  to  anoint  his 
feet  only,  standing  the  while  behind  him  ;  and  kissing  them  with  her 
lips,  and  wiping  with  the  hair  of  her  head,  she  realized,  as  it  were,  in  an 
outward  act,  the  bidding  of  St.  Paul,  '•  as  ye  have  yielded  your  members 
servants  to  uncleanness  and  to  iniquity  unto  iniquity  ;  even  so  now  yield 
your  members  servants  to  righteousness  unto  holiness."  (Rom.  vi.  19.) 
And  to  the  third  argument  it  may  be  answered,  that  though  the  two 
events  have  this  in  common,  that  there  was  on  each  occasion  an  offence 
taken,  yet  beyond  this  there  is  nothing  similar.  In  the  one  case  it  is 
the  Pharisee,  the  giver  of  the  feast,  that  is  offended — in  the  other  some 
of  the  di.^ciples,  and  mainly  Judas  ; — again,  the  Pharisee  is  offended  with 
the  Lord — Judas,  not  so  much  with  him,  as  with  the  woman  ; — the  Phari- 
see, because  the  Lord's  conduct  seems  inconsistent  with  his  reputation 
for  holiness — but  Judas,  as  is  well  known,  from  a  yet  meaner  and  baser 
motive  of  covetousness.  To  all  which  it  may  be  added,  that  there  is 
nothing  to  make  it  the  least  pro1)able.  that  the  Mary  of  the  happy  family 
circle  in  Bethany,*  to  whom  the  Lord  bears  such  honorable  testimony, 
had  ever  been  aforetime  one  to  whom  the  title  of  siniierl-  f  as  it  is  here 

*  2€;uj/7j  Koi  a-KovSaia  as  a  Greek  Father  entitles  her. 

f  "  AVhich  was  a  sinner,"  must  then  mean,  "  which  had  been  a  sinner,"  that  is, 
in  former  time-s,  but  had  long  since  been  brought  to  repentance  and  chosen  the 
bettor  i)art.  and  returned  to,  and  been  received  back  into,  the  bosom  of  her  fiimily; 
even  as  the  history  must  be  related  here  altogether  out  of  its  place,  for  the  anoint- 
ing by  Mary  took  place  immediately  before  the  Lord's  death,  it  was  for  his  burial. 
(Matt.  xxvi.  12.)  Many  do  thus  understand  the  words  to  refer  to  sins  long  ago 
committed,  even  as  they  had  been  long  ago  forsaken :  as  for  instance,  Grotius,  who 
is  partly  moved  thereto  by  the  necessities  of  his  harmony,  which  admits  but  one 
anointing,  and  partly,  I  should  imagine,  also  by  his  fear  of  antinomian  tendencies 
in  the  other  interpretation  ;  for  that  he  was  in  this  respect  somewhat  afraid  of  the 
Gospelof  the  grace  of  God.  his  Commentary  on  the  Romans  gives  sufficient  evidence : 
even  as  the  same  fear  makes  another  expositor  affirm,  that  her  sin,  for  which  she  was 
thus  s[)ok('n  of  as  a  sinner,  was  not  more  than  that  she  was  too  fond  of  adorning  her 
person ;  just  as  others  will  not  allow  Rahab  to  have  been,  at  least  in  the  common 
sense  of  the  term,  a  v6ovri  at  all,  but  only  the  keeper  of  a  lodging-house.  But  how 
much  does  that  view  maintained  by  Grotius  weaken  the  moral  effect  of  the  whole 
scene,  besides  being  opposed  to  the  plain  sense  of  the  words ; — if  the  woman  had 
long  sinee  returned  to  the  paths  of  piety  and  holiness,  it  is  little  likely  that  even 
the  Pharisee  should  have  been  so  vehemently  offended  at  the  gracious  reception 
whieli  she  found,  or  would  have  spoken  of  her  as  he  does,  "  for  she  h  a  sinner." 
We  should  rather  consider  this  as  the  turning  moment  of  her  life,  and  it  is  evident 
that  Augustine  {Scrm.  99)  so  considered  it,  for  he  says  of  her:  Accessit  ad  Domi- 
num  inmiunda  ut  redirct  munda.  accessit  a'gra  ut  rediret  sana.  Moreover  in  that 
other  case,  the  absolving  words,  "  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  "  instead  of  being  those  of 
16 


242  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

meant,  could  have  been  applied ;  and,  as  it  has  been  ingeniously  observed, 
with  the  risen  Lazarus  sitting  at  the  table,  even  this  Pharisee  would 
hardly  have  so  rapidly  drawn  hi^conclusion  against  the  divine  mission 
and  character  of  his  guest. 

These  arguments  appear  so  convincing,  that  one  is  surprised  to  find 
how  much  fluctuation  of  opinion  there  has  been  from  the  very  first  in 
the  Church,  concerning  the  relation  of  these  histories  one  to  another, — 
the  Greek  Fathers  generally  distinguishing  them — the  Latin,  for  the 
most  part,  seeing  in  them  but  one  and  the  same  history.  This  last 
opinion  however  finally  prevailed,  and  was  long  almost  the  universal  one 
in  the  Church,  that  is,  from  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  who  threw 
all  his  weight  into  this  scale,*  until  the  times  of  the  Reformation.  Then, 
when  the  Scriptures  were  again  subjected  to  a  more  critical  examina- 
tion, the  other  interpretation  gradually  became  prevalent  anew,  and  one 
might  say,  had.  for  some  while  been  recognized  almost  without  a  dis- 
sentient voice,  till  again  in  our  own  days  Schleiermacher  has  maintained, 
not  I  think  with  success,  but  certainly  with  extraordinary  acuteness,  that 
the  anointing  happened  but  once.  But  to  enter  further  on  this  debate 
would  be  alien  to  the  present  purpose:  and  the  passage  containing  the 
parable  of  the  Two  Debtors  will  be  considered  without  any  reference  to 
the  histories  in  the  other  Gospels,  of  which  indeed  I  have  the  firmest 
conviction  that  it  is  altogether  independent. 

a  present  forgiveness,  now  first  passing  upon  her,  can  only  be  the  repeated  assur- 
ance of  a  forgiveness  which  she  must  long  since  have  received ;  and  how  strange 
and  unnatural  a  supposition  this  is,  every  one  maj'  judge. 

*  The  fact  of  this  opinion  being  introduced  into  one  of  the  hymns  in  the  Liturgy 
as  by  him  reformed, — 

Maria  soror  Lazari, 

Quae  tot  commisit  crimina, — 

must  have  had  great  influence  in  procuring  its  general  acceptance.  Even  so  we 
have  in  the  famous  Dies  irce,  composed  in  the  tliirteenth  century, 

Qui  Mariam  absolvisti  .... 
Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti ; 

though  here  may  possibly  be  allusion  to  Mary  Magdalene,  who  indeed  was  often, 
thougli  without  the  slightest  grounds,  save  that  the  first  notice  of  her  occurs  shortly 
after  tliis  incident  (Luke  viii.  2),  identified  with  this  woman  that  was  a  sinner;  so 
that  many  have  made  but  one  and  the  same  person  of  Mary  the  sister  of  Lazarus, 
Mary  Magdalene,  and  this  woman.  Thus  Gregory  himself,  Horn.  33  in  Evang. 
The  belief  in  the  identity  of  tlie  two  last  has  indelibly  impressed  itself  on  the 
very  language  of  Christendom ;  but  there  is  notliing  to  mal^e  us  suppose  that  Mary 
Magdalene  had  led  an  eminently  sinful  life,  before  she  was  found  in  the  company  of 
the  lioly  women  that  ministered  to  the  Lord,  unless  we  should  interpret  tlie  .seven 
devils  wliich  were  cast  out  of  lier,  to  mean  seven  sins.— There  is  a  good  .sl^etch  of 
the  history  of  the  controversy  concerning  this  matter  in  Deyling's  Obxs^.  Sac.,  v.  3, 
p.  291 


THE  TWO  DEBTORS.  243 

Our  Lord  having  been  invited  to  the  house  of  a  Pharisee,  had  there 
"sai  dmon  to  meaty  That  a  woman,  and  one  of  a  character  such  as  is 
here  represented,  should  have  pressed  into  the  guest-chamber,  and  this 
uninvited,  cither  by  the  Lord,  or  by  the  master  of  the  house,  and  that 
she  should  have  there  been  permitted  to  offer  to  the  Saviour  the  form  of 
homage  which  she  did,  may  at  first  sight  appear  strange ; — yet  after  all 
does  not  require  the  supposition  of  something  untold  for  its  explanation, 
as  that  she  was  a  relation  of  Simon's,  or  lived  in  the  same  house, — sup- 
positious which  are  altogether  strange,  not  to  say  contradictory  to  the 
narrative.  A  little  acquaintance  with  the  manners  of  the  East,  where 
meals  are  so  often  almost  public,  where  ranks  are  not  separated  with 
such  iron  barriers  as  with  us,  will  make  us  feel  with  what  ease  such  an 
occurrence  might  have  taken  place.*  Or  if  this  seems  not  altogether  to 
explain  the  circumstance,  one  has  only  to  remember  how  easily  such 
obstacles  as  might  have  been  raised  up  against  her,  and  would  have 
seemed  insuperable  to  others,  or  to  herself  in  another  state  of  mind, 
would  have  been  put  aside,  or  broken  through  by  an  earnestness  such  as 
now  possessed  her :  even  as  it  is  the  very  nature  of  such  religious  ear- 
nestness to  break  through  and  despise  these  barriers,  nor  ever  to  pause 
and  ask  itself  whether  according  to  the  world's  judgment  it  be  •'  in  sea- 
son" or  "out  of  season."! 

*  The  following  confirmation  of  what  above  is  written  has  been  since  put  into 
my  hands :  "At  a  dinner  at  the  Consul's  house  at  Damietta  we  were  much  interested 
in  observing  a  custom  of  the  country.  In  the  room  whore  we  were  received,  besides 
the  divan  on  which  we  sat,  there  were  seats  all  round  the  walls.  Many  came  in  and 
took  their  places  on  those  side-seats,  uninvited  and  yet  unchallenged.  They  spoke 
to  those  at  table  on  business  or  the  news  of  the  day,  and  our  host  spoke  freely  to 
them.  This  made  us  understand  the  scene  in  Simon's  house  at  Bethany,  where 
Jesus  sat  at  supper,  and  Mary  came  in  and  anointed  his  feet  witli  ointment ;  and 
also  the  scene  in  the  Pharisee's  house,  where  the  woman  who  was  a  sinner  came  in, 
uninvited  and  yet  not  forbidden,  and  washed  his  feet  with  her  tears.  We  after- 
wards saw  tliis  custom  at  Jerusalem,  and  there  it  was  still  more  fitted  to  illustrate 
these  incidents.  We  were  sitting  round  Mr.  Nicolayson's  table,  when  first  one  and 
then  another  stranger  opened  the  door,  and  came  in,  taking  their  seat  by  the  wall. 
Tliey  leant  forward  and  spoke  to  those  at  the  table."  Narrative  of  a  Mission  of 
Inquiry  to  the  Jews  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  1839. 

t  Augustine  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxl.  4) :  Ilia  impudica,  quondam  frontosa  ad  forni- 
cationem,  ftontosior  ad  salutem  irrupit  in  domum  alienam ;  and  again  {Serm.  99, 
c.  1 ) :  Vidistis  mulierera  famosam  .  .  .  non  invitatam  irruisse  convivio,  ubi  suns 
medicus  recumbebat,  et  quajsisse  pia  impudentia  sanitatem  :  irruens  quasi  impor- 
tuna  convivio,  opportuna  bcneficio :  and  Gregory  the  Gri'at  {Hum.  33  in  Evang.): 
Quia  turpitudinis  sua3  maculas  aspexit,  lavanda  ad  funtem  niisericordiic  cucurrit, 
convivantes  non  erubuit ;  Nam  quia  senietipsam  graviter  erubescebat  intus,  nihil 
esse  credidit,  quod  verecundaretur  foris;  and  anotlier  (Bkrnardi  Opp.,  v.  2.  p. 
601):  Gratias  tibi,  6  beatissima  poccatrix;  ostendisti  niundo  tutum  .satis  peccato- 
ribus  locum,  pedes  scilicet  Jesu,  qui  neminem  speniunt,  neminem  njiciuntjierai- 


244  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

In  the  thoughts  which  passed  through  the  heart  of  the  Pharisee, — 
displeased  at  seeing  that  the  Lord  did  not  repel  the  woman,  but  gra- 
ciously accepted  her  homage, — the  true  spirit  of  a  Pharisee  betrays 
itself — of  one  who  could  not  raise  his  thoughts  beyond  a  ceremonial 
pollution,  nor  understand  of  holiness,  as  standing  in  any  thing  save  the 
purifying  of  the  flesh,*  who  would  have  said  to  that  woman,  had  she 
dared  to  approach  unto  kini,  '•  Stand  by  thyself,  for  I  am  holier  than 
thou  !"t  In  the  conclusion  to  which,  in  his  inward  heart,  he  arrived, 
"  This  man,  if  he  were  a  prophet,  would  have  known  who  and  what 
manner  of  woman  this  is ;"  we  trace  the  belief,  so  evidently  current 
among  the  Jews,  that  discerning  of  spirits  was  one  of  the  marks  of  a 
true  prophet,  and,  in  an  especial  degree,  of  the  great  prophet  of  all,  the 
Messiah, — a  belief  founded  on  Isaiah  xi.  3,  4.  (See  1  Kin.  xiv.  6  ;  2 
Kin  i.  3 ;  v.  26.)  Thus  Nathanael  first  exclaims  in  wonder  to  the  Lord 
who  has  truly  read  his  character,  "  Whence  knowest  thou  me  V  and 
then  presently  breaks  out  into  that  undoubting  confession  of  faith, 
"  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  thou  art  the  King  of  Israel ;"  and  so  the 
Samaritan  woman,  "  Come  and  see  a  man  who  told  me  all  things  which 
ever  I  did :  is  not  this  the  Christ  ?"  (John  iv.  29) ;  and  on  account  of 
this  belief  it  is,  that  the  Evangelists  are  so  often  careful  to  record  that 
Jesus  knew  the  thoughts  of  his  hearers,  or  as  St.  John  (ii.  25)  expressly 
states  it,  '•  needed  not  that  any  should  testify  of  man,  for  he  knew 
what  was  in  man. "J:  So  that,  in  fact,  the  Pharisee  mentally  put  the 
Lord  into  this  dilemma, — either  he  does  not  know  the  true  character  of 
this  woman,  in  which  case  he  lacks  that  discernment  of  spirits  which 
pertains  to  every  true  prophet ;  or  if  he  knows  it,  and  yet  endures  her 

nem  repcllunt :  suscipiunt  omnes,  omnes  admittunt.  Ibi  certfe  ^thiopissa  mutat 
pellem  suam ;  ibi  pardus  mutat  varietatem  suam ;  ubi  solus  Pharisaeus  non  exspu- 
mat  superbiam  suam. 

*  Augustine :  Habebat  sanctitatem  in  corpore  non  in  corde,  at  quia  non  habebat 
earn  in  corde,  utique  falsem  habebat  in  corpore.  Cf.  Enarr.  in  Ps.  c.  5;  cxxv.  2; 
and  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  34  in  Evang.)  :  Yera  justitia  compassionem  habet, 
falsa  justitia  dedignationem. — As  a  specimen  of  similar  notions  of  holiness  current 
among  the  Jews,  a  commentator  on  Prov.  v.  8,  puts  this  very  question :  Quanto 
spatio  fi  meretrice  recedendum  est  1  R.  Chasda  respondet:  Ad  quatuor  cubitos. 
(ScHOETTGEN,  Hor.  Hcb.,  V.  1,  p.  348.)  And  again,  p.  303,  various  Rabbis  are 
extolled  for  the  precautions  which  they  took  to  keep  lepers  at  a  distance  from 
them ;  for  example,  by  flinging  stones  at  them  if  they  approached  too  near. 

t  Bernard,  in  a  beartiful  passage  {De  Dedic.  Ecc,  Serm.  4).  styles  him:  Phari- 
saeam  ilium  murmurantem  adversCis  modicum,  qui  salutem  operabatur,  et  succcn- 
sentem  languidae,  qua?  salvabatur. 

X  Vitringa  {Obss.  Sac,  v.  1,  p.  479)  has  an  interesting  and  instructive  essay  {De 
Sign  is  a  Mcssid  cr'cni/is)  on  the  expectations  of  the  Jews  concerning  the  miracles 
which  the  Messiah  was  to  perform,  and  by  which  he  was  to  legitimate  his  pre- 
tensicftB. 


THE  TWO  DEBTORS.  245 

touch  and  is  willing  to  accept  a  service  at  such  hands,  he  is  lacking  in 
that  holiness  which  is  also  the  mark  of  a  prophet  of  God  ;  such  therefore 
in  either  case  he  cannot  be.  Probably  as  these  thoughts  were  passing 
through  his  mind  he  already  began  to  repent  of  the  needless  honor  he 
had  shown  to  one,  whose  pretensions  to  a  peculiar  mission  from  God  he 
had  thus  quickly  concluded  were  unfounded.  But  the  Lord  showed  him 
that  he  was  indeed  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  of  hearts,  by  reading  at 
once  what  was  passing  in  his  heart,  and  laying  his  finger  without  more 
ado  on  the  tainted  spot  which  was  there.  "  Simo?i.^^  he  said,  "  /  have 
sovicivhat  to  say  unto  tlieeV  The  other  could  not  refuse  to  hear,  nor  has 
he  yet  so  entirely  renounced  his  faith  in  some  higher  character  as  be- 
longing to  his  guest,  but  that  he  still  addresses  him  with  an  appellation 
of  respect,  "  Master,  say  on." 

With  this  introduction, — with  this  leave  to  speak  asked  and  received, 
— the  parable  is  uttered.  "  T/icrc  teas  a  certain  creditor  xvhicli  had  two 
debtors:  tlie  one  owed  jive  hundred  pence  and  the  other  fifty.  And  wJten 
they  had  nothing  to  j^ay,  lie  frankly  forgave  them  both.''''  In  the  words 
themselves  there  is  no  difficulty,  though  in  the  application  of  them  to 
the  case  which  they  were  spoken  to  illustrate,  there  are  one  or  two  of 
considerable  importance.  God,  it  needs  not  to  say,  is  the  creditor,  men 
the  debtors,  and  sins  the  debts.  Of  the  sums  named  as  the  amount  of 
the  debts,  fifty  and  five  hundred  pence,  it  may  be  remarked  that  they 
vary  indeed,  but  nothing  like  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  two  debts 
vary  in  the  parable  of  the  Unmerciful  Servant.  (Matt,  xviii.)  There 
the  difference  is  between  ten  thousand  talents  and  one  hundred  pence, 
an  enormous  diff"erence,  even  as  the  difi'erence  is  enormous  between  the  ' 
sins  which  a  man  commits  against  God,  and  those  which  his  fellow-man 
may  commit  against  him  ;  but  here  the  difference  is  not  at  all  so  great, 
the  sums  vary  but  in  the  proportion  of  ten  to  one,  for  there  is  no  such 
incalculable  difference  between  the  sins  which  one  man  and  another 
commits  against  God.  Our  Lord  proceeds :  "  Tell  tne.  tliercfoix,  ivhich  of 
tlieni  will  love  him  most  ?  Simon  answered.  I  stqjpose  that  lie.,  to  ichoni 
he  forgave  most.''''  The  difficulties  meet  us  when  we  come  to  the  appli- 
cation of  these  words :  for  while  that  which  Simon  says  is  true  in  the 
order  of  things  natural,  can  the  consequences  which  would  seem  there- 
upon to  be  induced  as  relates  to  the  spiritual  world  be  true  also?  Are 
we  to  conclude  from  hence,  as  at  first  sight  might  seem,  that  there  is  any 
advantage  in  having  multiplied  transgressions? — that  the  wider  a  man 
has  wandered  from  God,  the  nearer,  if  he  be  brought  back  at  all,  he  will 
cleave  to  him  afterward? — the  more  .sin.  the  more  love?  Would  it  not 
then  follow,  "  Let  us  do  evil  that  good  may  come," — let  us  sin  much 
now,  that  we  may  love  much  hereafter. — that  we  may  avoid  that  luke- 
warmness  of  affections  which  will  be  the  condition  of  those  that  have 


246  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

sinned  but  little  ?  And  would  it  not  then  seem,  that  for  a  man  to  have 
been  kept  out  of  gross  oflences  in  the  time  before  he  was  awakened  to  a 
deeper  religious  earnestness, — or,  better  still,  for  a  man  to  have  grown 
out  of  his  baptismal  root, — instead  of  being  a  blessing,  and  a  mercy,  and 
a  matter  of  everlasting  thanksgiving,  would  prove  a  hindrance,  oppos- 
ing, in  his  case,  an  effectual  barrier  to  any  very  near  and  very  high 
communion  of  love  with  his  Saviour  ?  And  to  understand  the  passage 
thus,  would  it  not  be  to  affirm  a  moral  contradiction, — to  affirm  in  fact 
this,  that  the  more  a  man  has  emptied  himself  of  love, — the  more  he  has 
laid  waste  all  nobler  affections  and  powers, — the  deeper  his  heart  has 
sunk  in  selfishness  and  sensuality  (for  sin  is  all  this),  the  more  capable 
be  will  be  of  the  highest  and  purest  love  ? 

But  the  whole  matter  is  clear,  if  we  consider  the  debt,  not  as  an  ob- 
jective, but  a  subjective,  debt, — not  as  so  many  outward  transgressions 
and  outbreaks  of  evil,  but  as  so  much  conscience  of  sin :  and  this  we 
well  know  is  in  no  wise  in  proportion  to  the  amount  and  extent  of  evil 
actually  committed  and  brought  under  the  cognizance  of  other  men. 
Often  they  who  have  least  of  what  the  world  can  call  sin,  or  rather 
crime  (for  the  world  knows  nothing  of  sin),  have  yet  the  deepest  sense 
of  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin — are  most  conscious  of  it  as  a  root  of 
bitterness  in  themselves — are  the  most  forward  to  exclaim,  "  Woe  is  me, 
I  am  undone,  because  1  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips ;"  and  therefore,  as 
they  have  most  groaned  under  the  evil,  are  the  most  thankful  for  the 
fact  of  a  redemption,  for  the  gift  of  a  Redeemer.  But  he  who  has  little 
forgiven  is  not  necessarily  he  who  has  sinned  little,  but  he  who  is  lack- 
ing in  any  strong  conviction  of  the  exceeding  evil  of  sin,  who  has  little 
feeling  of  his  own  share  in  the  universal  taint  and  corruption  that 
cleaves  to  all  the  descendants  of  Adam,  who  has  never  learned  to  take 
home  his  sin  to  himself;  who,  therefore,  while  he  may  have  no  great 
objection  to  Grod's  plan  of  salvation,  may  have  a  cold  respect,  as  this 
Pharisee  had,  for  Christ,  yet  esteems  that  he  could  have  done  as  well, 
or  nearly  as  well,  without  him.  He  loves  little,  or  scarcely  at  all,  be- 
cause he  has  little  sense  of  a  deliverance  wrought  for  him ;  because  he 
never  knew  what  it  was  to  lie  under  the  curse  of  a  broken  law,  having 
the  sentence  of  death  in  himself,  and  then  by  that  merciful  Saviour  to  be 
set  free,  and  bidden  to  live,  and  brought  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God.* 

*  Augustine  {Serm.  99.  c.  4)  freely  acknowledges  the  stress  of  this  ditBculty: 
Dicit  enim  aliquis.  Si  cui  modicum  dimittitur,  modicilm  diligit ;  cui  autom  plus 
dimittitur,  plus  diligit,  expcdit  j)lus  diligere  quim  minds  diligere :    oportet  ut 

multi!im  peccemus ut  dimissorem  magnorum  debitorum  amplius  diligamus ; 

and  again :  Si  invenero  plus  diligere  eum.  cui  plura  peccata  dimissa  sunt,  utilius 
multa  peccavit,  utilior  erat  multa  iniquitas,  no  esset  tepida  caritas.    And  he  solves 


THE  TWO  DEBTORS.  247 

Simon  himself  was  an  example  of  one  who  thus  loved  little,  who 
having  little  sense  of  sin,  felt  little  his  need  of  a  Redeemer,  and  there- 
fore loved  that  Redeemer  but  little  :  and  he  had  betrayed  this  his  lack 
of  love  in  small  yet  significant  matters.  Accounting,  probably,  the  in- 
vitation itself  as  sufficient  honor  done  to  his  guest,  he  had  withheld 
from  him  the  ordinary  courtesies  almost  universal  in  the  East — had 
neither  given  him  water  for  the  feet  (Gen.  xviii.  4 ;  Judg.  xix.  21), 
nor  oflfered  him  the  kiss  of  peace  (Gen.  xxii.  4;  Exod.  xviii.  7),  nor 
anointed  his  head  with  oil,  as  was  ever  the  custom  at  festivals.  (Ps. 
xxiii.  5;  cxli-  5  ;  Matt.  vi.  17.)  But  while  he  had  fallen  so  short  of  the 
customary  courtesies,  that  woman  had  far  exceeded  them.  He  had  not 
poured  water  on  the  Saviour's  feet, — she  had  washed  them,  not  with 
water  but  with  her  tears — the  blood  of  her  heart,*  as  Augustine  calls 
them, — and  then  wiped  them  with  the  hairs  of  her  head  ; — he  had  not 
given  the  single  kiss  of  salutation  on  the  cheek,  she  had  multiplied 
kisses,  and  those  upon  the  feet ;  he  had  not  anointed  the  head  of  Jesus 
with  ordinary  oil, — but  she  with  precious  ointment  had  anointed  even 
his  feet. 

'''■WJierefore  I  say  unto  tlice^  Her  sins  xohich  are  many^  are  forgiven  ; 
for  she  loved  much:  hut  to  xcltom  little  is  forgiven  the  same  lovctJi  little.''^ 
There  is  an  embarrassment,  by  all  acknowledged,  on  the  face  of  these 
words  ;  first,  how  to  bring  them  into  agreement  with  the  parable,  for  in 
that  the  debtor  is  said  to  love  much,  because  forgiven  much,  and  not  to 
be  forgiven  much,  because  he  loved  much :  and  again  how  to  bring 
them  into  agreement  with  the  general  doctrine  of  Scripture,  which  ever 
teaches  that  we  love  God  because  he  first  loved  us, — that  faith  is  the 
previous  condition  of  forgiveness,  and  not  love,  which  is  not  a  condition 
at  all,  but  a  consequence.  Some  have  felt  these  difficulties  so  strongly, 
that  in  their  terror  lest  the  Romanists  should  draw  any  advantage  for 
their  fides  formata  from  the  passage, — which  indeed  tliey  are  willing 
enough  to  do, — they  have  affirmed  that  the  word  designating  the  cause 
really  stands  for  that  designating  the  consequence, — that  "  her  sins  are 
forgiven^  for  slw  loved  much^''  means,  "  lier  sins  are  forgiven^  tJier(fore 
site  loved  much."  j  But  in  the  first  place,  it  was  not  true  that  she  yet 
knew  her  sins  to  be  forgiven, — the  absolving  words  are  only  spoken 
in  the  next  verse ;  and  moreover,  this  way  of  escape  from  a  doctrinal 

it  as  is  done  above:  0  Pharis»c,  ideo,  parum  diligis,  quia  parum  tibi  diiiiitti  sus- 
picaris:  non  quia  parum  dimittitur,  sed  quia  parum  putas  esse,  ([uod  diuiittitur. 
Compare  a  beautiful  sermon  by  Schleiermacher.     {Prcdiglcii,  v.  1,  p.  524.) 

*  FuiHt  lacrymas,  sanguinem  cordis. 

t  They  say  Srt  is  here  for  Uo  and  a])])eal  to  Jolui  viii.  44  and  1  Jolin  iii.  14  ;  hut 
neither  jtassage.  riglitly  intcri)reted,  yields  the  least  sui)port  to  the  view  (hat  (ho 
words  could  ever  be  interchangeably  used.     (See  Winer's  Grammalik,  p.  42G.) 


248  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

embarrairfment,  by  some  violence  done  to  the  plain  words  of  the  text, 
will  at  once  be  rejected  by  all,  who  justly  believe  that  in  the  interpre- 
ta^tion  of  Scripture,  grammar  and  the  laws  of  human  speech  should  first 
be  respected,  and  that  the  doctrine  can  and  will  take  care  of  itself — 
will  never  in  the  end  be  found  in  any  contradiction  with  itself, — that 
the  faith  of  the  Church  will  ever  come  triumphantly  forth  out  of  every 
part  of  the  word  of  God.  And  as  far  as  regards  advantage  which  the 
Romish  controversialists  would  fain  draw  from  the  passage,  such,  what- 
ever may  be  the  explanation,  there  can  really  be  none.  The  parable 
stands  in  the  heart  of  the  narrative,  an  insuperable  barrier  against  such; 
he  who  owed  the  large  debt  is  not  forgiven  it  as  freely  as  the  other  is 
his  smaller  debt,  because  of  the  greater  love  which  he  before  felt  to- 
wards the  creditor  ;*  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  sense  of  a  larger  debt 
remitted,  makes  him  afterwards  love  his  creditor  more.  And  besides, 
were  it  meant  that  her  sins  were  forgiven,  because, — in  their  sense  who 
would  make  charity  justify  and  not  faith,f — she  loved  much,  the  other 
clause  in  the  sentence  would  necessarily  be,  "  But  he  who  loveth  little, 
to  the  same  little  is  forgiven." 

But  the  words,  '■'■for  site  loved  much"  may  best  be  explained  by  con- 
sidering what  the  strong  sorrow  for  sin,  and  the  earnest  desire  after  for- 

*  Inci-odilde  as  it  will  appear,  this  is  actually  the  interpretation  of  the  parable 
given  by  Malclonatus  (ad  loc.) :  "Which  of  tlievi  will  love  him  most?"  is  only,  he 
affirms,  a  [lopular  way  of  saying,  "  Which  of  them  did  love  him  mostl" — which  of 
them  may  you  conclude  from  the  effect  to  have  had  most  affection  for  him,  and 
therefore,  to  have  been  dearest  to  him,  he  in  whose  behalf  he  was  willing  to  remit  a 
large  debt,  or  he  in  whose  behalf  he  only  remitted  a  small  1 — He  asserts  the  same 
to  have  been  the  interpretation  of  the  parable  given  by  Euthemius,  and  also  by 
Augustine ;  in  the  case  of  the  last  this  is  certainly  untrue. 

•j-  Let  me  quote,  were  it  only  with  the  hope  of  bringing  it  before  one  reader  who 
was  hitherto  ignorant  of  it,  the  following  passage  on  the  attempt  thus  to  substitute 
charity  for  faith  in  the  justification  of  man.  "  To  many,  to  myself  formerly,  it  has 
appeared  a  mere  dispute  about  words :  but  it  is  by  no  means  of  so  harmless  a 
character,  for  it  tends  to  give  a  false  direction  to  our  thoughts,  by  diverting  the 
conscience  from  the  ruined  and  corrupted  state  in  which  we  are  without  Christ. 
Sin  is  the  disease.  What  is  the  remedy  1 — Charity? — Pshaw!  Charity  in  the 
large  apostolic  sense  of  the  term  is  the  health,  the  state  to  be  obtained  by  the  use 
of  the  remedy,  not  the  sovereign  balm  itself — faith  of  grace. — faith  in  the  God- 
manhood,  the  cross,  the  mediation,  the  perfected  righteousness  of  Jesus,  to  the  utter 
rejection  and  abjuration  of  all  righteousness  of  our  own!  Faith  alone  is  the 
restorative.  The  Romish  scheme  is  preposterous ; — it  puts  the  rill  before  the 
spring.  Faith  is  the  source. — charity,  that  is  the  whole  Christian  life,  is  the 
stream  from  it.  It  is  quite  childish  to  talk  of  faith  being  imperfect  without 
cliarily;  as  wisely  might  you  say  that  a  fire,  however  bright  and  strong,  was 
imjierd'ct  without  heat ;  or  that  the  sun,  however  cloudless,  is  imperfect  without 
beams.  The  true  answer  would  be  : — It  is  not  faith, — but  utter  reprobate  faith- 
lessness."    (Coi.EiuDGK,  Lilcrary  Remains,  v.  2,  368.) 


THE  TWO  DEBTORS.  249 

giveness,  suoh  as  this  woman  displayed,  mean,  and  from  whc  ace  they 
arise  ; — surely  from  this,  from  the  deep  feeling  in  the  sinner's  heart,  that 
by  his  sins  he  has  separated  himself  from  that  God  who  is  Love,  whil-e 
yet  he  cannot  do  without  his  love, — from  the  feeling  that  the  heart  must 
be  again  permitted  to  love  him,  must  be  again  assured  of  his  love  toward 
it,  else  it  will  utterly  wither  and  die.  Sin  unforgivcn  is  felt  to  be  the 
great  barrier  to  this ;  and  the  desire  after  forgiveness, — if  it  be  not  a 
mere  selfish  desire  after  personal  safety,  in  which  case  it  can  be  nothing 
before  God, — is  the  desire  for  the  removal  of  this  barrier,  that  so  the 
heart  may  be  free  to  love  and  to  know  itself  beloved  again.  This  desire 
then  is  itself  love  at  its  negative  pole,  not  as  yet  made  positive,  for  the 
work  of  grace,  the  absolving  word  of  God  can  alone  make  it  so ;  it  is 
the  flower  of  love  desiring  to  bud  and  bloom,  but  not  daring  and  not  able 
to  put  itself  forth  in  the  chilling  atmosphere  of  the  anger  of  God, — but 
which  will  do  so  at  once  when  to  the  stern  winter  of  God's  anger,  the 
genial  spring  of  his  love  succeeds.  In  this  sense  that  woman  "  loved 
micch;"  all  her  conduct  proved  the  intense  ^'earning  of  her  heart  after  a 
reconciliation  with  a  God  of  love,  from  whom  she  had  alienated  herself 
by  her  sins  ;  all  her  tears  and  her  services  witnessed  how  much  she  de- 
sired to  be  permitted  to  love  him  and  to  know  herself  beloved  of  him,i 
and  on  account  of  this  her  love,  which,  in  fact,  was  faith*  (see  ver.  50,1 
"  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee"),  she  obtained  forgiveness  of  her  sins.  This' 
sense  of  the  miserable  emptiness  of  the  creature, — this  acknowledgment 
that  a  life  apart  from  God  is  not  life  but  death,  with  the  conviction  that 
in  God  there  is  fulness  of  grace  and  blessing,  and  that  he  is  willing  to 
impart  of  this  fulness  to  all  who  bring  the  empty  vessel  of  the  heart  to 
be  filled  by  him  ;  this,  call  it  faith,  or  initiatory  love,  is  what  alone  makes 
man  receptive  of  any  divine  gift, — this  is  what  that  Pharisee,  in  his  legal 
righteousness,  in  his  self-sufficiency  and  pride,t  had  scarcely  at  all,  and 

*  Very  distinctly  Theophylact  (in  loo.)  "On  T/yaTrTjo-e  iro\v.  wtI  rod,  ttIcttw 
iveSe'i^aro  iroWriu.  and  pro.sently  before  he  calls  all  which  she  had  been  doing  for 
her  Saviour,  iriffTeus  ffvfi.0oAa  koI  aydiri^s.  For  further  testimonies  in  favor  of  this 
exposition,  see  Gerhard's  Loc.  TAcolL,  loc.  16,  c.  8,  ^  1. 

t  In  the  Bustan  of  the  famous  Persian  poet  Saadi  (see  Tholuck'.s  Bluthen- 
samml.  aiis  d.  Morgcnl.  Miistik,  p.  261)  there  is  a  story  which  seems  an  echo  of 
this  evangelical  history.  Jesus,  while  on  earth,  was  once  entertained  in  the  cell  of 
a  dervish  or  a  monk,  of  eminent  reputation  of  sanctity ;  in  the  same  city  dwelt  a 
youth  sunk  in  every  sin,  "  who.se  heart  was  so  black  that  Satan  himself  shrunk 
back  from  it  in  horror."  This  last  presently  ajipearcd  before  the  cell  of  the  monk, 
and,  as  smitten  by  the  very  presence  of  the  Divine  prophet,  began  to  lament  deeply 
the  sin  and  mi.sery  of  his  life  past,  and  shedding  abundant  tears,  to  implore  pardon 
and  grace.  The  monk  indignantly  interrupted  him,  demanding  how  he  dared  to 
appear  in  his  presence  and  in  that  of  God's  holy  proi)het;  as.sured  him  that  for 
him  it  was  in  vain  to  seek  forgiveness ;  and  in  proof  how  inexorably  he  considered 


250  THE  TWO  DEBTORS. 

therefore  he  derived  little  or  no  good  from  communion  with  Christ. 
But  that  woman  had  it  in  large  measure,  and  therefore  she  bore  away 
the  largest  and  best  blessing  which  the  Son  of  God  had  to  bestow,  even 
the  forgiveness  of  her  sins;  to  her  those  blessed  words  were  spoken, 
"  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee,  go  in  peace ;"  and  in  her  it  was  proved  true 
that  "where  sin  abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound." 

his  lot  was  fixed  for  hell,  exclaimed,  "My  God,  grant  me  but  one  thing,  that  I  may 
stand  far  from  this  man  on  the  judgment-day."  On  this  Jesus  spoke.  "  It  shall  be 
even  so :  the  prayer  of  both  is  granted.  This  sinner  has  sought  mercy  and  grace, 
and  has  not  sought  them  in  vain, — his  sins  are  forgiven, — his  place  shall  be  in 
Paradise  at  the  last  day.  But  this  monk  has  prayed  that  he  may  never  stand  near 
this  sinner, — his  prayer  too  is  granted, — hell  shall  be  his  place,  for  there  this  sinner 
shall  never  come. 


XVII. 
THE   GOOD   SAMARITAN. 

Luke  x.  30-37. 

We  need  not  suppose  that  the  lawyer,  who  "  stood  up"  and  proposed  to 
our  Lord  the  question  out  of  which  this  parable  presently  grew,  had  any 
malicious  intention  therein,  least  of  all  that  deep  malignity  which  moved 
questions  like  those  recorded  at  John  viii.  6;  Matt.  xxii.  16;  which 
were,  in  fact,  nothing  less  than  snares  for  his  life ;  nor  need  we  attrib- 
ute to  this  lawyer  even  that  desire  to  perplex  and  silence,  out  of  which 
other  questions  had  their  rise.  (Matt.  xxii.  23.)  For  in  the  first  place, 
the  question  itself,  "What  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?"  was  not  an 
ensnaring  one ;  it  was  not  one  like  that  concerning  the  tribute-money, 
which  it  was  hoped  would  put  the  answerer,  however  he  replied,  in  a 
false  position ;  and  further,  we  may  conclude  from  the  earnestness  of 
the  Lord's  reply,  that  the  spirit  out  of  which  the  question  was  proposed, 
had  not  been  altogether  light  or  mocking;  since  it  was  not  his  manner  to 
answer  so  the  mere  cavillers  or  despisers.  The  only  ground  for  attribut- 
ing an  evil  intention  to  this  scribe,  or  lawyer, — for  Matt.  xxii.  35,  com- 
pared with  Mark  xii.  28,  show  that  scribe  and  lawyer  are  the  same, — is 
that  he  is  said  to  have  put  the  question  to  Christ  "  tempting  him."  But 
to  tempt,  in  its  proper  signification,  means  nothing  more  than  to  make 
trial  of,  and  whether  the  tempting  be  good  or  evil,  is  determined  by  the 
motive  out  of  which  it  springs.  Thus  God  tempts  man,  when  he  puts  ^ 
him  to  proof,  that  he  may  show  him  what  is  in  himself, — that  he  may 
show  him  sins,  which  else  might  have  remained  concealed  even  from 
himself  (Jam.  i.  12) ;  he  tempts  man  to  bring  out  his  good,  and  to 
strengthen  it  (Gen.  xxii.  1  ;  Heb.  xi.  17) ;  or  if  to  bring  his  evil  out,  it 
is  that  the  man  may  himself  also  become  aware  of  some  evil  which  be- 
fore was  concealed  from  him,  and  watch  and  pray  against  it, — it  is  to 


252  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

humble  him  and  to  do  him  good  in  his  latter  end;*  only  Satan  tempts 
man  purely  to  irritate  and  bring  out  and  multiply  his  evil.  The  purpose 
of  this  lawyer  in  tempting  Jesus,  as  it  was  not  on  the  one  side  that  high 
and  holy  one,  so  as  little  seems  it  this  deeply  malignant  on  the  other. 
The  Evangelist  probably  meant  nothing  more  than  that  he  desired  to  put 
the  Lord  to  the  trial.  Comparing  Matt.  xxii.  35  with  Mark  xii.  28-34, 
both  records  of  the  same  conversation,  we  shall  see  that  in  the  first  the 
questioner  is  said  to  have  proposed  his  question,  as  in  the  present  case, 
tempting  the  Lord ;  while  in  the  secoii'd  Evangelist,  the  Lord  bears  wit- 
ness concerning  the  very  questioner,  "  Thou  art  not  far  from  the  kingdom 
of  Grod;"  even  as  he  was  evidently  a  seeker  and  lover  of  truth.  We  can- 
not, indeed,  suppose  that  the  question,  on  the  present  occasion,  arose 
purely  from  love  of  the  truth,  and  a  desire  to  be  further  instructed  in  it ; 
but  the  lawyer  probably  would  fain  make  proof  of  the  skill  of  this  fa- 
mous Galilaean  teacher,  he  would  measure  his  depths,  and  with  this  pur- 
pose he  brought  forward  the  question  of  questions,  "  What  shall  I  do  to 
inherit  eternal  life  ?" 

Our  Lord's  reply  is  as  much  as  to  say, — The  question  you  ask  is 
already  answered  ;  what  need  to  make  further  inquiries,  when  the  answer 
is  contained  in  the  words  of  that  very  law,  of  which  you  profess  to  be  a 
searcher  and  expounder  ?  What  is  written  there  concerning  this  great 
question  1  "  How  readest  thou  ?  "  That  the  lawyer  should  at  once  lay 
his  finger  on  the  great  commandment  which  Christ  himself  quoted  as 
such  on  that  other  occasion  just  referred  to,  showed  no  little  spiritual 
insight, — proved  that  he  was  superior  to  the  common  range  of  his  coun- 
trymen:  he  quotes  rightly  Deut.  vi.  5,  in  connection  with  Lev.  xix.  18, 
as  containing  the  essence  of  the  law.  Thereupon  our  Lord  bears  him 
testimony  that  he  has  answered  well, — that  his  words  were  right  words, 
however  he  might  be  ignorant  of  their  full  import. — of  all  which  they 
involved  :  "  Thou  hast  answered  right ;  this  do,  and  thou  shalt  live  ;"  put 
this  which  thou  knowest  into  effect,— let  it  pass  from  dead  uninfluential 
knowledge  into  living  practice,  and  it  will  be  well  Now  at  length  the 
lawyer's  conscience  is  touched :  these  last  words  have  found  him  out ; 
however  he  may  have  owned  in  theory  the  law  of  love,  he  has  not  been 

*  Tleipd^eti'^irelpav  Xafx^aveiv.  Augustine  veiy  frequently  describes  the  manner 
in  which  it  can  be  said  that  God  tempts,  and  the  j^urposes  which  he  has  in  tempts 
ing  ;  thus  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  Iv.  1) :  Omnis  tentatio  probatio  est.  et  omnis  probationis 
effectus  habet  fructum  suum.  Quia  homo  plerunKiue  ctiam  sibi  ipsi  ignotus  est: 
quid  ferat,  (piidve  non  ferat  ignorat,  et  aliquando  prjesumit  se  ferre  quod  non 
potest,  et  aliquando  desperat  se  posse  ferre  quod  potest.  Accedit  tentatio  quasi 
intcrrogatio,  et  invenitur  homo  k  sei[)so.  quia  latebat  et  seipsum,  sed  artificem  non 
latt'bat.  Thus  God  tempts  as  SoKi/xaar^s  ruv  KapSiuv.  Satan,  on  the  contrary,  ia 
TAe  temper  {6  ireipd^uv^d  Treipao-Ti'js.)     Cf  Tertullian,  De  Oratione,  c.  8. 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.  253 

living  in  obedience  to  it.  Still  he  would  fain  justify  liimself ;  if  he  has 
not  been  large  and  free  in  the  exercise  of  love  towards  his  fellow  men 
it  is  because  few  have  claiuis  upon  him : — "  True,  I  am  to  love  my 
neighbor  as  myself,  but  who  is  my  neighbor  ?"  *  The  very  question, 
like  Peter's,  "  How  oft  shall  my  brother  sin  against  me,  and  I  forgive 
him  ?"  was  not  merely  a  question  which  might  receive  a  wrong  answer, 
but  itself  a  wrong  question,  involving  a  wrong  condition  of  mind,  out  of 
which  alone  it  could  have  proceeded.  He  who  asked,  "  Whom  shall  I 
love  ?"  proved  that  he  understood  not  what  that  love  meant  of  which  he 
spoke,  for  he  wished  to  have  laid  down  beforehand  how  much  he  was  to 
do,  and  where  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  stop, — who  had  a  claim  and 
who  not  upon  his  love ;  thus  proving  that  he  knew  nothing  of  that  love, 
whose  essence  is,  that  it  lias  no  limit,  except  in  its  own  inability  to  pro- 
ceed further, — that  it  receives  a  law  only  from  itself, — that  it  is  a  debt 
which  we  must  be  well  content  to  be  ever  paying,  and  not  the  less  still 
to  owe.  (Rom.  xiii.  8.)  Especially  wonderful  is  the  reply  which  our 
blessed  Saviour  makes  to  him,  wonderful,  that  is,  in  its  adaptation  to  the 
needs  of  him  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  leading  him,  as  it  does,  to  take 
off  his  eye  from  the  object  to  which  love  is  to  be  shown,  and  to  turn  it 
back  and  inward  upon  him  who  is  to  show  the  love  ;  for  this  is  the  key 
to  the  following  parable,  and  with  this  aim  it  was  spoken. 

■'  A  certain  man  went  doion  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho?''  He  says, 
"  went  doionr  or,  "  was  going  down,"  not  merely  because  Jerusalem 
stood  considerably  higher  than  Jericho, — for  the  phrase  would  have  its 
fitness  in  this  view, — but  because  the  going  to  Jerusalem,  as  to  the  me- 
tropolis, was  always  spoken  of  as  going  up.  (See  Acts  xviii.  22.)  The 
distance  between  the  two  cities  was  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  stadia, — 
the  road  lying  through  a  desolate  and  rocky  region — "  the  wilderness 
that  goetli  up  from  Jericho"  (Josh.  xvi.  1),  though  the  plain  of  Jericho 
itself,  the  second  city  in  Judtiea,  was  one  of  extraordinary  fertility  and 
beauty,  well  watered,  and  abounding  in  palms  (••  the  city  of  palm-trees," 
Judg.  i.  16),  in  roses,  in  balsam,  in  honey,  and  in  all  the  choicest  produc- 


*  Tliohick  (Auslcs^ung  dcr  BergprefJigt,  Matt.  v.  43),  has  an  instructive  inquiry 
on  th('  iiittTpr 'tatioii  which  the  Jews  gave  to  the  term  '  neiglibor,"  in  the  law.  It 
is  strikin;r  to  see  the  question  of  the  narrow-hearted  scribe.  '  Who  is  my  neighbor?" 
reaiJi)eariug  in  one  who  would  think  that  they  two  had  little  in  common.  I  make 
this  fxtraet  tVoin  Emerson's  Essays  {Ess.  2) :  ■•  Do  not  tell  me,  as  a  good  man  did 
to-day,  of  my  obligation  to  put  all  poor  men  in  good  situations.  Are  they  my 
poor  1  I  tell  Uiee.  thou  foolish  philanthropist,  that  I  grudge  the  dollar,  the  dime, 
the  cent.  I  give  In  suck  men  as  <lo  not  belong  to  me,  and  to  irhom  I  do  not  belong. 
There  is  a  cla.ss  of  persons  to  whom  by  all  spiritual  affinity  I  am  bought  and 
sold ;  for  them  I  will  go  to  prison,  if  need  be ;  but  your  miscellaneous  popular 
charities,"  &c. 


254  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

tions  of  Palestine.*  St.  Jerome  mentions  that  a  particular  part  of  the 
road  leading  from  one  of  these  cities  to  the  other,  was  called  the  red  or 
'  the  bloody  way.f  so  much  blood  had  there  been  shed  by  robbers ;  and 
that  in  his  own  time,  there  was  at  one  point  in  this  wilderness  a  fort  with 
a  Roman  garrison,  for  the  protection  of  travellers ;  so  that  the  incident 
of  the  poor  traveller  falling  in  that  very  journey  among  robbers  seems 
taken  from  the  life.  Those  among  whom  he  fell  did  their  best  to  main- 
tain the  infamous  character  of  the  spot,  for  they  ''  stripped  him  of  his  rai- 
ment^'' and,  because,  perhaps,  he  made  some  slight  resistance  as  they  were 
spoiling  him.  or  out  of  mere  wantonness  of  cruelty,  "  loounded  him^  and 
departed,  leaving  him  ludf  dead  " 

As  he  lay  bleeding  in  the  road,  "  by  chance  there  ca,nie  down  a  certain 
priest  that  ivay?''  The  original  would  justify  us  in  saying  rather  "  by 
coincidence  "I  than  '■■hy  chance;''''  by  that  wonderful  falling  in  of  one 
event  with  another,  which  often  indeed  seems  to  men  but  chance,  yet  is 
indeed  of  the  fine  weaving  in,  by  God's  providence,  of  the  threads  of  dif- 
ferent men's  lives  into  one  common  woof.  He  brings  the  negative  pole 
of  one  man's  need  into  contact  with  the  positive  of  another  man's  power 
of  help — one  man's  emptiness  into  relation  with  another's  fulness.  Many 
of  our  summonses  to  acts  of  love  are  of  this  kind,  and  they  are  those  per- 
haps which  we  are  most  in  danger  of  missing,  through  a  failing  to  see 
in  them  this  finger  of  God.  He  at  least  who  went  down  that  way  missed 
his  opportunity.  There  would  be  a  fine  irony  in  the  supposition  that 
lie  was  one  who  was  journeying  from  Jericho,  which  was  a  great  station 
of  the  priests,  to  Jerusalem,  there  to  execute  his  ofl&ce  before  God,  "  in 
the  order  of  his  course,"  or  who,  having  accomplished  his  turn  of  service, 
was  returning  to  his  home.  But  whether  this  was  so  or  not,  at  all  events, 
he  was  one  who  had  never  learned  what  that  meant,  "  I  will  have  mercy, 
and  not  sacrifice ;"  rather  one  who,  whatever  duties  he  might  have  been 
careful  in  fulfilling,  had  "  omitted  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law,  judg- 
ment, mercy,  and  faith  ;" — for  "  wlien  he  saw  him,  he  passed  by  on  tlie 
other  side."  ^     So  likewise  did  a  Levite,  though  in  his  cruelty  there  was 

*  CoTORici  Iliner.,  quoted  by  Winer  {Real  Worterbuch.,  s.  v.  Jerico) :  Est  in 
planitie  sita  pcrampla,,  montibus  in  theatri  formam  circumdata,,  amcenissimS.  qui- 
dem  et  pinguissimfl,  sed  inculta,  hodie,  floribus  tamen  et  herbis  odoriferis  abun- 
dantissiniS.. 

f  Onornast.,  s.  v  Adommim.  There  is  a  particularly  impressive  description  of 
this  dreary  route  in  Lamartine's  Travels  in  the  Holy  Land.  Indeed  no  travellers 
seem  to  have  gone  thi.s  journey  without  being  deeply  impressed  with  the  wildness 
and  desolation  of  the  road. 

X  Kara  ffvyKvpiav.  'S.vyKvpia,  or  more  commonly  ffvyKvpyja-is,  from  a-vv  and 
Kvpea)=:Tvyxdi'u},  the  falling  in  one  event  with  another,  exactly  our  English  coin- 
cidence. 

^  If  the  wounded  man  was  a  Jew,  and  it  is  very  unnatural  to  assume  him  to 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.  255 

an  additional  aggravation  ;  for  he,  it  might  be  out  of  curiosity,  drew  near 
and  looked  at  the  miserable  condition  of  the  wounded  man,  claiming,  as 
it  did,  instant  help  ;  for  the  life  that  remained  was  fast  ebbing  through 
his  open  gashes,  and  yet  after  all  could  endure  to  pass  forward  without 
affording  him  the  slightest  assistance.  Thus  did  they,  who  made  their 
boast  in,  and  were  the  express  interpreters  of,  that  law,  which  was  so 
careful  in  pressing  the  duties  of  humanity,  that  twice  it  had  said, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  see  thy  brother's  ass,  or  his  ox,  fall  down  by  the  way, 
and  hide  thyself  from  them ;  thou  shalt  surely  help  hira  to  lift  them  up 
again."  (Deut.  xxii.  4  ;  Exod.  xxiii.  5.)  Here  not  a  brother's  ox  or  his 
ass,  but  a  brother  himself,  was  lying  in  his  blood,  and  they  hid  them- 
selves from  him.     (Isai.  Iviii.  7.) 

"  Bi(t  a  certain  Samaritan^  as  he  jounieyal^  came  ivhere  he  was." 
He  might  have  found  the  same  excuses  for  hurrying  on  as  those  who  had 
gone  before  him  had  done,  for  no  douTjt  they  did  make  excuses  to  them- 
selves,— they  did,  in  some  way  or  other,  justify  their  neglect  to  their  own 
consciences ;  as  perhaps  they  said  that  there  was  danger  where  one  out- 
rage had  happened,  of  another  happening, — that  the  robbers,  probably, 
were  not  far  distant,  and  might  return  at  any  moment, — or  that  the  suf- 
ferer was  beyond  the  help  of  man, — or  that  he  who  was  found  near  him 
might  himself  be  accused  of  having  been  his  murderer.  The  Samaritan 
was  exposed  to  at  least  the  same  danger  in  all  these  respects,  as  those 
that  had  passed  before  him,  but  he  took  not  counsel  of  these  selfish  fearSj 
for  when  he  saw  the  wounded  and  bleeding  man,  "  /le  had  comjyassion  on 
him.''''*  While  the  priest  and  Levite, — marked  out  as  those  who  should 
have  been  foremost  in  showing  pity  and  exercising  mercy, — were  forget- 
ful of  the  commonest  duties  of  humanity,  it  was  left  to  the  excommuni- 
cated Samaritan,  whose  very  name  was  a  by-word  of  contempt  among 
the  Jews,  and  synonymous  with  heretic  (John  viii.  48),  to  show  what  love 
was ;  and  this,  not  as  was  required  of  them,  to  a  fellow-countryman,  but 
to  one  of  an  alien  f  and  hostile  race, — one  of  a  people  that  had  no  deal- 
have  been  any  other,  his  countrymen  (the  priest  and  the  Levite)  were  in  this  very 
far  indeed  from  deserving  even  tliat  limited  praise  wliich  Tacitus  gives  them; 
Apud  ipsos  misericordia  in  promptu. 

*  Tliis  compassion,  as  the  best  thing  he  gave,  is  mentioned  first,  for  Gregory 
the  Great  says  with  great  bcautj  {Moral.,  1.  20,  a  36) :  Extcriora  etenim  largiens, 
rem  extra  semetipsum  prrelniit.  Qui  autem  fletiim  et  compassionem  proximo 
tribuit,  ei  aliquid  etiam  de  semetipso  dedit. 

t  Our  Lord  calls  the  Samaritan  a  stranger  (aWoyev^s.  Luke  xvii.  18),  one  of  a 
different  stock.  It  is  very  curious  how  the  notion  of  the  Samaritans,  as  being  a 
mingled  people,  composed  of  two  elements,  one  heathen  one  Israclitish,  .should  of 
late  universallj'  have  found  way  not  merely  into  popular  but  into  learned  books;  so 
that  they  are  often  spoken  of  as,  in  a  great  measure,  the  later  representatives  of  tho 
ten  tribes.    Christian  antiquity  knew  nothing  of  this  view  of  their  origin,  but  saw 


256  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

ings  with  his  people, — that  anathematized  them  ; — even  as,  no  doubt,  all 
the  influences  with  which  he  had  been  surrounded  from  his  youth,  would 
have  led  him,  as  far  as  he  yielded  to  them,  to  repay  hate  with  hate,  and 
insult  with  insult,  and  wrong  with  wrong.  For  if  the  Jew  called  the 
Samaritan  a  Cuthite, — an  idolater  who  worshipped  the  image  of  a  dove, — 
and  cursed  him  publicly  in  his  synagogue, — and  prayed  that  he  might 

in  them  a  people  of  unmingled  heathen  blood  (see  testimonies  in  Suicer's  Thes.  s. 
V.  '2,afiapeir7]s,  to  which  may  be  added  Theophylact  on  Luke  xvii.  15,  'Ao-ffvpioi  yap 
oi  :S,aixapeiTai) ;  and  the  Scripture  itself  aflbrds  no  countenance  whatever  for  this 
view,  but  much  that  makes  against  it.  In  2  Kin.  xvii.,  where  the  deportation  of 
the  Israelites  is  related,  there  is  not  a  word  to  make  us  suppose  that  any  were  left, 
or  that  there  was  any  blending  of  the  Cuthites  and  other  Assyrian  colonists  that 
were  brought  in,  with  a  remnant  of  the  original  inhabitants,  whom  they  found  still 
in  the  land.  It  is  true  that  when  Judah  was  carried  away  captive,  many  of  the 
people  were  left  still  in  the  land :  but  we  can  easily  explain  why  they  should  have 
been  thus  di tie rently  dealt  with;  their  sins  comparatively  were  smaller,  and  the 
Lord  moreover  had  a  purpose  of  bringing  back  the  captivity  of  Judah.  Winer 
(^Rcal  Wortcrbuch,  s.  v.  Samaritaner)  says  that  it  is  ■^ery  unlikely  that  some  out  of 
the  ten  tribes  were  not  left  behind  in  the  same  manner.  But  2  Kin.  xxi.  13,  seems 
to  give  the  strongest  testimony  that  there  were  none  whatever.  For  there  the  Lord 
threatening  .Judah  says,  "  I  will  stretch  over  Jerusalem  the  line  of  Samaria  and  tJu 
plummet  of  the  house  of  Ahab,  and  I  will  wipe  Jerusalem  as  a  man  wipeth  a  dish,  and 
turneth  it  upside  down."  This,  which  was  only  a  threat  against  Judah,  in  part 
averted  by  repentance,  had  actually  been  executed  against  Samaria.  (See  Jer.  vii. 
15.)  That  such  an  entire  clearance  of  a  conquered  territory  was  not  unusual,  we 
may  see  from  Herod.  3.  140 :  6.  81.  For  an  account  of  the  process  by  which  it 
was  sometimes  effected,  and  which  the  Persians  may  well  have  learnt  from  their 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  forerunners  in  empire,  see  p.  117,  note.  The  historian 
describes  a  Greek  island  which  had  undergone  the  process,  as  being  delivered  to  a 
new  lord,  ip-qnov  ioua-av  avSpwv.  If  the  Samaritans  had  owned  any  Jewish  blood  in 
their  veins,  they  would  certainly  have  brought  this  forward,  as  mightily  strength- 
ening their  claim  to  be  allowed  to  take  part  with  Zerubbabel  and  Ezra,  and  the 
returned  Jewish  exiles,  in  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple;  but  they  only  say,  "We 
seek  our  God  as  ye  do,  and  we  do  sacrifice  unto  him  since  the  days  of  Esarhaddon. 
king  of  Assur,  which  brought  us  up  hither."  (Ezra  iv.  2.)  When  our  Lord,  at 
the  first  sending  out  of  his  apostles,  said,  "  Into  any  city  of  the  Samaritans  enter 
ye  not"  (Matt.  x.  5),  he  was  not,  as  some  tell  us,  yielding  to  popular  prejudice,  but 
gave  the  prohibition  because,  till  the  Gospel  had  been  first  offered  to  the  Jews,  "to 
the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,"  they  had  no  more  claim  to  it  than  any  other 
Gentiles,  being  as  much  aWoy^vels  (Josephus  call  them  aWoebveis),  as  any  other 
heathen.  What  is  singular  is,  that  the  mistake  is  altogether  of  recent  origin ;  the 
expositors  of  two  hundred  years  ago  are  quite  clear  of  it.  Hammond  speaks  of  the 
Samaritan  in  our  parable,  as  "being  of  an  Assyrian  extraction;"  and  Maldonatus: 
Samaritan!  origine  Ghaldpei  erant;  and  Rcland,  De  Samaritanis ;  and  many  more. 
For  the  opinion  of  Makrizi,  the  very  accurate  and  learned  Arabian  geographer, 
concerning  the  origin  of  the  Samaritans,  an  opinion  altogether  agreeing  with  that 
here  stated,  see  S.  de  Sacy's  Chrcst.  Arabc,  v.  2,  p.  177.  And  Robinson,  in  his 
Biblical  Researches,  speaking  of  the  Samaritans,  says,  "  The  physiognomy  of  those 
we  saw  was  not  Jewish." 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.  257 

have  no  portion  in  the  resurrection  of  life, — and  proclaimed  that  his  tes- 
timony was  worth  nothing  and  might  not  be  received, — that  he  who 
entertained  a  Samaritan  in  his  house,  was  laying  up  judgments  for  his 
children, — that  to  eat  a  morsel  of  his  fare  was  as  eating  swine's  flesh — 
and  in  general  would  rather  suifer  any  need  than  be  beholden  to  him  for 
the  smallest  office  of  charity ;  the  Samaritan  was  not  behindhand  in 
cursing,  nor  yet  in  active  demonstrations  of  enmity  and  ill  will.  We  are 
not  without  evidences  of  this  in  the  Gospels  (John  iv.  9 ;  Luke  ix.  53). 
and  from  other  sources  more  examples  of  their  spite  may  be  gathered. 
While,  for  instance,  the  Jews  were  in  the  habit  of  communicating  the 
exact  time  of  the  new  moon  to  those  at  a  distance  from  Jerusalem,  by  fires 
kindled  on  the  highest  mountain  tops,  they  would  give  the  signal  on  the 
day  preceding  tlie  right  one,  so  to  perplex  and  mislead.*  And  Josephus 
mentions  that  they  sometimes  proceeded  much  further  than  merely  to 
refuse  hospitality  to  the  Jews  who  were  going  up  to  the  feasts  at  Jeru- 
salem,— that  they  fell  upon  and  murdered  many  of  them — and  once, 
which  must  have  been  to  them  most  horrible  of  all,  a  Samaritan  entering 
Jerusalem  secretly,  polluted  the  whole  temple,  by  scattering  in  it  human 
bones,  t 

But  the  heart  of  this  Samaritan  was  not  hardened,  though  so  many 
influences  must  have  been  at  work  to  harden  and  to  steel  it  against  the 
needs  and  distresses  of  a  Jew.  Exceedingly  touching  is  here  the  minute- 
ness with  which  all  the  details  of  his  tender  care  toward  the  poor  and 
unknown  stranger,  of  whom  all  he  knew  was,  that  he  belonged  to  a  na- 
tion bitterly  hostile  to  his  own,  are  given.  He  '■'■bound  %ip  his  wounds^'' 
no  doubt  with  stripes  torn  from  his  own  garments,  having  first  poured 
in  wine  to  cleanse  them,  and  then  oil  to  assuage  their  smart,  and  to  bring 
gently  the  sides  of  them  together,  these  two  being  costly  but  well  known 
and  highly  esteemed  remedies  throughout  the  East.J  All  this  must 
have  consumed  no  little  time,  and  this  too  while  there  was  every  motive 
to  hasten  onward.  But  after  thus  he  had  ministered  to  the  wounded 
man's  most  urgent  needs,  and  revived  in  him  the  dying  spark  of  life,  he 
" set  him  on  his  oivn  beast,  and  brought  him  to  an  i?in"  and  there  again 
renewed  his  care  and  attention.  Nor  even  so  did  he  account  that  he 
had  done  all,  but  before  he  departed  on  the  morrow,  with  the  considerate 

*  This  foot  is  mentioned  by  Makrizi  (.see  S.  de  Sacy's  Chrest.  Arabe,  v.  2,  p. 
159),  who  affirms  that  it  was  this  which  put  tlie  Jews  on  making  accurate  calcula- 
tions to  detemiine  the  moment  of  the  new  moon's  appearance.  Cf.  Schoettgen'b 
Hot.  Hcb.,  v.  1,  p.  3M 

t  Josephus,  Anlt.,  18.  2.  2. 

X  See  Isai.  i.  6.  Pliny,  H.  N.,  1.  31,  c.  47.  Both  Greek  and  Latin  physicians 
commended  vinegar  and  oil,  or  wine  and  oil,  to  be  used  in  cases  of  bruises  and 
wounds.  • 

17 


258  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

foresight  of  love,  he  provided  for  the  further  wants  of  the  sufferer — "  he 
took  out  tivo  pence  and  gave  them  to  tJie  Ibost^  and  said  unto  him^  Take 
care  of  him^  and  ivhatsoever  thou  spendest  more,  loloen  I  come  again,  I* 
ivill  repay  tltceP 

Beautiful  as  is  this  parable  when  thus  taken  simply  according  to  the 
letter,  and  full  of  incentives  to  active  mercy  and  love,  bidding  us  to 
"put  on  bowels  of  mercies,"  to  be  kind  and  tender-hearted,  yet  how 
much  lovelier  still,  provoking  how  much  more  strongly  still  to  love  and 
good  works,  when,  with  most  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  with  many 
too  of  the  Reformers,  we  trace  in  it  a  deeper  meaning  still,  and  see  the 
work  of  Christ,  of  the  merciful  Son  of  man  himself,  portrayed  to  us 
here.  It  has  been  objected  to  this  interpretation,  that  it  makes  the  pa- 
rable to  be  nothing  to  the  matter  immediately  in  hand.  But  this  is  a 
mistake  ;  for  what  is  that  matter  ?  To  magnify  the  law  of  love,  to  show 
who  fulfils  it,  and  who  not.  Inasmuch  then  as  Christ  himself,  he  who 
accounted  himself  every  man's  brother,  in  its  largest  extent  fulfilled  it, 
showed  how  we  ought  to  love  and  whom  ;  and  inasmuch  as  it  is  his  ex- 
ample, or  rather  faith  in  his  love  towards  us.  which  is  alone  really  effec- 
tual in  causing  us  to  "  love  one  another  with  a  pure  heart  fervently," 
he  might  well  propose  himself  and  his  act  in  succoring  the  perishing 
humanity,  as  the  everlasting  pattern  of  self-denying  and  self-forgetting 
love,  and  bring  it  out  in  strongest  contrast  with  the  selfish  carelessness 
and  neglect  of  the  present  leaders  of  the  theocracy.  They  had  not 
strengthened  the  diseased,  nor  healed  the  sick,  nor  bound  up  the  broken, 
nor  sought  that  which  was  driven  away  (see  Ezek.  xxxiv.  4),  while  he 
had  bound  up  the  broken-hearted  (Isai.  Ixi.  1),  and  poured  the  balm  of 
sweetest  consolation  into  all  wounded  spirits.  Moreover,  even  the  ad- 
versaries of  this  interpretation  must  themselves  acknowledge  the  facility 
with  which  all  the  circumstances  of  the  parable  yield  themselves  to  it ; 
and  it  certainly  affords  a  strong  presumption  that  a  key  we  have  in  our 
hand  is  the  right  one,  when  it  thus  turns  in  the  lock  without  forcing, 
when  it  adapts  itself  at  once  to  all  the  wards  of  the  lock,  however  many 
and  complex.  Of  course,  this  deeper  interpretation  was  reserved  for  the 
future  edification  of  the  Church.  The  lawyer  naturally  took  and  was 
meant  to  take  the  meaning  which  lay  upon  the  surface ;  nor  will  the 
parable  lose  its  value  to  us,  as  showing  forth  the  pity  and  love  of  man  to 
his  fellow,  because  it  also  shadows  forth  the  crowning  act  of  mercy  and 
love  shown  by  the  Son  of  man  to  the  entire  race. 

The  traveller  then  is  the  personified  human  Nature,  or  Adam  as  he 

*  Let  us  not  miss  the  ^yi  airoStofrto,  "/will  repay  thee."  Trouble  not  the  poor 
man  upon  tliat  score ;  /  will  take  those  charges  on  myself;  or  it  might  be,  Fear 
not  thou  to  be  a  loser ;  /  will  be  thy  paymaster.    ' 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN".  259 

is  the  representative  and  head  of  the  race.  He  has  left  Jerusalem,  the 
heavenly  city,  the  city  of  the  vision  of  peace,  and  is  travelling  toward 
Jericho,  he  is  going  doivn  toward  it,  the  profane  city,  the  city  which  was 
under  a  curse.  (Josh.  vi.  26 ;  1  Kin.  xvi.  34.)  But  no  sooner  has  he 
forsaken  the  holy  city  and  the  presence  of  his  God,  and  turned  his  de- 
sires toward  the  world,  than  he  falls  under  the  power  of  him  who  is  at 
once  a  robber  and  a  murderer  (John  viii.  44),  and  by  him  and  his  evil 
angels  is  stripped  of  the  robe  of  his  original  righteousness ;  nor  this 
only,  but  grievously  wounded,  left  full  of  wounds  and  almost  mortal 
strokes,  every  sin  a  gash  from  which  the  life-blood  of  his  soul  is  copiously 
flowing.*  Yet  is  he  at  the  same  time  not  altogether  dead  ;t  for  as  all 
the  cares  of  the  good  Samaritan  would  have  been  expended  in  vain  upon 
the  poor  traveller,  had  the  spark  of  life  been  wholly  extinct,  so  a  re- 
covery for  man  would  have  been  impossible,  if  there  had  been  nothing 
to  recover,  no  spark  of  divine  life,  which  by  a  heavenly  breath  might 
again  be  fanned  into  flame — no  truth  which,  though  detained  in  un- 
righteousness, might  yet  be  delivered  and  extricated  from  it.  When  the 
angels  fell,  as  it  was  by  a  free  self-determining  act  of  their  own  will, 
with  no  solicitation  from  without,  from  that  moment  they  were  not  as 
one  half-dead,  but  altogether  so,  and  no  redemption  was  possible  for  them. 
But  man  is  "  half  dead ;" — he  has  still  a  conscience  witnessing  for  God ; 
evil  is  not  his  good,  however  little  he  may  be  able  to  resist  its  tempta- 
tions ;  he  has  still  the  sense  that  he  has  lost  something,  and  at  times  a 
longing  for  the  restoration  of  the  lost.  His  case  is  desperate  as  concerns 
himself  and  his  own  power  to  restore  himself,  but  not  desperate,  if  taken 
in  hand  by  an  almighty  and  all-merciful  Physician. 

And  who  else  but  such  a  Divine  Physician  shall  give  him  back  what 
he  has  lost,  shall  heal  and  bind  up  the  bleeding  hurts  of  his  soul  ?  Can 
the  law  do  it?  The  apostle  answers,  it  could  not;  "if  there  had  been 
a  law  which  could  have  given  life,  verily  righteousness  should  have 

*  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Annott.  in  Iacc.)  :  Homo  iste  ....  genus  designat  huma- 
num,  quod  in  primis  parentibus  supernam  civitatem  deserens,  in  hujus  seculi  et 
exilii  miseriam  per  culpara  corruen.s ;  per  antiqui  hostis  fraudulentiam  veste  in- 
nocentiie  et  imniortalitatis  est  spoliatum,  et  originalis  culpje  vitiis  graviter  viilne- 
ratum.  See  Ambrosk,  Exp.  in  L/iic,  1.  7,  c.  73  ;  Augustine,  Enarr.  in  Ps.  exxv. 
6,  and  the  sermon  {Horn.  34,  in  Laic.)  which  Jerome  has  translated  out  of  Origen. 
For  the  later  Gngstic  perversions  of  the  parable  in  this  direction,  see  Neander, 
Kirch.  Gesch.,  v.  5,  p.  1121. 

t  H.  de  Sto.  Victore:  Quamvis  enim  tanta  malitift  possit  affici  ut  niliil  diligat 

boni  non  tamen  ignorantia  tanta  excajcari  potest,  ut  nihil  congnoscat  boni 

Hostilis  gladius  hominem  penitus  non  extinxit,  dum  in  eo  naturalis  boni  <lignitatem 
omnino  delevo  non  potuit.  Augustine  {QiKcst.  Evang.  1.  2.  qu.  19):  Ex  parte  quft, 
potest  intcUigere  et  cognoscere  Deuni,  vivus  est  homo;  ex  parte  qua  peccatis  con- 
tabescit  et  premitur,  mortuus  est. 


260  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

been  by  the  law  "  (Gal.  iii  21.*)  The  law  was  like  Elisha's  staff,  which 
might  be  laid  ou  the  face  of  the  dead  child,  but  life  did  not  return  to  it 
the  more  (2  Kin.  iv.  21);  Elisha  himself  must  come  ere  the  child  re- 
vive.f  Or  as  Theoph}'lact  here  expresses  it :  "  The  law  came  and 
stood  over  him  where  he  lay,  but  then,  overcome  by  the  greatness  of  his 
wounds,  and  unable  to  heal  thetii,  departed."  Nor  could  the  sacrifices 
do  better;  they  could  not  -'make  the  comers  thereunto  perfect,"  nor  '-take 
away  sins,"  nor  '•  purge  the  conscience."  The  law,  whether  natural 
or  revealed,  could  not  quicken,  neither  could  the  sacrifices  truly  abolish 
guilt  and  reconcile  us  unto  Grod.  The  priest  and  the  Levite  were  alike 
powerless  to  help:  so  that  in  the  eloquent  words  of  a  scholar  of  St.  Ber- 
nard's,! "  Many  passed  us  by,  and  there  was  none  to  save.  That  great 
patriarch.  Abraham,  passed  us  by,  for  he  justified  not  others,  but  was 
himself  justified  in  the  faith  of  one  to  come.  Moses  passed  us  by,  for 
he  was  not  the  giver  of  grace,  but  of  the  law,  and  of  that  law  which 
leads  none  to  perfection :  for  righteousness  is  not  by  the  law.  Aaron 
passed  us  by,  tlie  priest  passed  us  by,  and  by  those  sacrifices  which  he 
continually  offered,  was  unable  to  purge  the  conscience  from  dead  works 
to  serve  the  living  God.  Patriarch  and  prophet  and  priest  passed  us  by, 
helpless  both  in  will  and  deed,  for  they  themselves  also  lay  wounded  in 
that  wounded  man.  Only  that  true  Samaritan  beholding  was  moved 
with  compassion,  as  he  is  all  compassion,  and  poured  oil  into  the  wounds, 
that  is.  himself  into  the  hearts,  purifying  all  hearts  by  faith.  Therefore 
the  faith  of  the  Church  passes  by  all,  till  it  reaches  him  who  alone 
would  not  pass  it  by."^     (Rom.  viii.  3.) 

*  The  selection  of  this  passage,  Gal.  iii.  16-23,  for  the  Epistle  on  the  Sunday 
(the  thirteenth  after  Trinity),  when  this  parable  supplies  the  Gospel,  shows  I  think, 
very  clearly,  the  interpretation  which  the  Church  puts  upon  the  parable.  The 
Gospel  and  Epistle  agree  in  the  same  thing,  that  the  law  caimot  quicken,  that 
righteousness  is  not  by  it,  but  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus. 

f  Augustine,  Enarr.  hi  Ps.  Ixx.  15. 

X  Gillebert.  His  works  are  to  be  found  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  volume  of 
the  Benedictine  edition  of  St.  Bernard.  He  carried  on  and  completed  the  exposition 
of  the  Canticles  which  Bernard  had  left  unfinished  at  his  death. — Compare  a  noble 
passage  in  Clemens  Alex.,  Qw«s  Dives  Salv..  c.  29.  Tts  5'  &i/  aKXos  el-rj  ir\T)v  avrhi 
&  StoT^p ;  ^  Tis  imWov  7)fms  eXefitxas  eKelvov,  robs  inrh  ruy  K0(rfioKpar6po)v  rod  <tk6tovs 
oXiyov  redavaTcvjXfuovs  raits  ttoWois  Tpai/xaffi,  <p6fiois-  eTri&u/iiais.  opyous.  Xvirais.  airdrais, 
T)^ovous  ;  TOVTOiiv  5e  twv  rpavixdroov  fiSvos,  laTphs  '1t](Tovs.  eKKSinruv  &p5r]v  to,  tto^ 
■Kp6ppi^a'  ovK  SiffTTep  6  vofxos  >|/iAa  ra  aTroTe\f(Tfj.aTa,  tovs  Kupirovs  tccv  •Kovr}po>v  (pvTcov, 
aWa  TJiv  a^lvrji'  r^v  eavrod  irphs  ras  pi^as  rrjs  KUKtas  irpoffayaydiv  •  ouros  6  rhi>  oTvov  rh 
aJ/xa  TTJs  a.fnre\ov  rod  Aaj8l5  eVxcas  Tjfxiy  iir\  ras  rerpwixevas  ^vx^s.  6  rh  €K  airKayxvtev 
irueiifxaros  f\aiov  irpoffeveyKoov  Kol  iTri5a^i\eu6iJ.ivos  •  ovros  6  rovs  r^s  vyelas  Kol  (Twrrj- 
pias  Sfcri-iuvs  a\vrovs  eiriSel^as  ayairTji'.  iricrriv  eA.7ri5a  •  ovros  6  SiaKOveTu  ayyeXovs  Koi 
iipX^-s  KOi  i^oufflas  r-iTu  inrord^as  fVl  fxeyaKw  /xiff^w.  SiSri  koI  avrol  iXevbfpoi^-l^aovrai 
inrh  rrjs  iJ.a.rpai6r-qrvs  rov  k6(Tixov  irapa  rrjv  a.TroKaXu'f/iv  rrjs  5J|rjs  rSif  vliav  rov  &eou. 

^  The  argument    liat  Augustine  uses  more  than  once  (as  Serm.  171,  c.  2)  in 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN.  261 

If  it  is  absolutely  needful  to  give  a  precise  meaning  to  the  oil  and  the 
wine,  we  might  say.  with  Chrysostom,  that  the  wine  is  the  blood  of  Pas- 
sion, the  oil  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.*  On  tlie  binding  up  of  the 
wounds,  one  might  observe  that  the  sacraments  are  often  spoken  of  in 
the  language  of  the  early  Church  as  the  ligaments  for  the  wounds  of  the 
souLf  It  is  moreover  a  common  image  in  the  Old  Testament  for  the 
healing  of  all  spiritual  hurts.J:  When  we  find  the  Samai-itau  setting  the 
wounded  man  on  his  own  beast,  and  therefore  of  necessity  himself 
pacing  on  foot  by  his  side,^  we  can  scarcely  help  drawing  a  comparison 
with  him,  who  though  he  was  jich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that 
we  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich, — the  Son  of  man  who  came  npt 

proof  that  our  Lord  intended  himself  to  be  understood  by  this  Samaritan,  is 
singular.  He  argues  thus :  Cilm  duo  essent  verba  conviciosa  objecta  Domino, 
dictuniquo  illi  esset,  Samaritanus  es  et  dsemonium  habes.  j)oterat  respondere :  Nee 
Samaritanus  sum,  nee  dseraonium  habeo :  respondet  autem.  Ego  daemonium  non 
habeo.  Quod  respondit,  refutavit :  quod  tacuit,  confirmavit.  Cf.  Enarr.  in  Ps. 
cxxxvi.  3. 

*  They  were  sometimes  interpreted  differently ;  the  oil  as  the  blanda  consolatio, 
the  wine  as  the  austera  increpatio.  Thus  Bernard  says  of  the  good  pastor:  Sama- 
ritanus sit,  custodiens  et  observans  quando  oleum  misericordias  (juando  vinum 
fervoris  exhibeat;  and  beautifully,  and  at  more  length,  In  Cant.,  Servi  44,  3.  So 
too  Gregory  the  Great  {Moral.,  1  20,  c.  5) :  Inesse  rectoribus  debet  et  justfe  conso- 
lans  misericordia,  et  pi^  sajviens  diseiplina.  Hinc  est  quod  seniivivi  illius  vulneri- 
bus,  qui  i  Samaritano  in  stabulum  ductus  est.  et  vinum  adliibetur  et  oleum ;  ut 
per  vinum  mordeantur  vulnera.  per  oleum  foveantur:  quatenus  unusquisque  qui 
sanandis  vulneribus  {)ra3est.  in  vino  morsum  districtionis  adhibeat,  in  oleo  mollitiem 
pietatis :  per  vinum  mundentur  putrida.  per  oleum  sananda  foveantur.  And  very 
beautiful  is  the  prayer  into  which  in  anotlier  place  he  has  re.splved  this  whole 
history  {E.rp.  in  Ps.  li.):  Utinam,  Domine  Jesu,  ad  me  misericordia  motus,  digneris 
accedere,  qui  descendens  ab  Jerusalem  in  Jericho,  proruens  scilicet  de  summis  ad 
infirma.  de  vitalibus  ad  infirma,  in  angelos  tenebrarum  incidi,  qui  non  solCim  gratiae 
spiritalis  mihi  vestimentum  abstulerunt.  sed  etiam  plagis  impositis  semivivum  reli- 
querunt.  Utinam  peccatorum  meorum  vulnera.  data,  mihi  recuperandai  salutis 
fiducia,  alliges,  ne  deterius  sajviant,  si  sanari  desperent.  Utinam  oleum  mihi  re- 
missionis  adhibeas,  et  vinum  compunctionis  infundas.  Quod  si  in  jumentum  tuum 
me  imposueris,  de  terrd.  inopera,  pauperem  de  stercore  suscitabis.  Tu  es  enim  qui 
peccata  nostra  pertulisti,  qui  pro  nobis  qusc  non  rajjueras  exsolvisti.  Si  in  stabu- 
lum me  Ecclesife  tuae  duxeris,  corporis  et  sanguinis  tui  me  refectione  cibabis.  Si 
curam  mei  egeris.  nee  prtecepta  tua  practerco.  nee  frementium  rabiem  bestiarum 
incurro.  Custodifi  enim  tuA  iiidigeo.  quamdiu  carnem  banc  corruptibiliem  porto. 
Audi  ergo  me.  Samaritane,  spoliatum  et  vulneratum,  flentem  et  genuMitem,  invo- 
cantem  et  cum  David  claniantem  Miserere  mei,  Deus,  secundiim  magnam  miseri- 
cordiam  tuam. 

t  Augustine  not  precisely  so:  Alligatio  vnlnerum  est  cohibitio peccatorum  ;  the 
stanching  of  the  ever-tiowing  fountain  of  (n-il  in  the  heart. 

I  Cf  Ps.  cxlvi.  .3.  (LXX)  :  'O  iwfj^tvos  tovs  (Twrtrpiixtvovs  t)]v  KapSlay.  Kol  Sffffitvoip 
T«k  ffvuTplfifxaTa  avT'jjv. 

5  Lyser  :  Suo  quasi  incommodo  nostra  comraoda  quaesivit. 


262  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister — "  who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins 
in  his  own  body."  Neither  is  it  far-fetched  to  see  in  the  inn  the  figure 
of  the  Church,  the  place  of  spiritual  refection,  in  which  the  healing  of 
souls  is  ever  going  forward, — by  some  called  on  this  last  account  a 
hospital, — whither  the  merciful  Sou  of  man  brings  all  those  whom  he 
has  rescued  from  the  hand  of  Satan,  and  in  which  he  cares  for  them 
evermore.*  In  harmony  with  this  we  find  Christ's  work  continually 
set  forth  in  Scripture  as  a  work  of  healing :  for  instance,  Mai.  iv.  2 ; 
Hos.  xiv.  4;  Ps.  ciii.  3;  Matt.  xiii.  15;  Rev.  xxii.  2;  and  typically, 
Num.  xxi.  9. 

And  if,  like  the  Samaritan,  who  was  obliged  on  the  morrow  to  take 
his  departure,!  he  is  not  always  in  body  present  with  those  whose  cure 
he  has  begun,  if  for  other  reasons  it  is  expedient  even  for  them  that  he 
should  go  away,  yet  he  makes  a  rich  provision  of  grace  for  them  dur- 
ing his  absence,  and  till  the  time  of  his  coming  again.  It  would  be  en- 
tering into  curious  minutia3,  which  rather  tend  to  bring  discredit,  on  this 
scheme  of  interpretation,  to  affirm  decidedly  of  the  two  pence,  that  they 
mean  either  the  two  sacraments,  or  the  two  testaments,  or  the  word  and 
the  sacraments,  or  unreservedly  to  accede  to  any  other  of  the  ingenious 
explanations  which  have  been  offered  for  them.  It  is  sufficient  that 
they  signify  all  gifts  and  graces,  sacraments,  powers  of  healing,,  of 
remission  of  sins,  or  other  powers  which  Christ  has  left  with  his  Church 
to  enable  it  to  keep  house  for  him  till  his  return.  As  the  Samaritan 
took  out  two  pence  and  gave  them  to  the  host,  and  said,  "  Take  care  of 
him  ;" — even  so  the  Lord  Jesus  said  unto  Peter,  and  in  him,  to  all  his 
fellow  apostles,  having  first  promised  unto  them  heavenly  gifts,  and 
richly  furnished  them  for  their  work,  "  Feed  my  sheep,"  "  Feed  my 
lambs."  To  them,  and  in  them  to  all  that  succeed  them,  he  has  com- 
mitted an  economy  of  the  truth,  that  as  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God,  they  may  dispense  those  mysteries  as  shall  seem  best  for  the 
health  and  salvation  of  his  people.  And  as  it  was  said  to  the  host, 
"  Whatsoever  thou  spendest  more,  ivhen  I  come  again  I  will  repay  thee;^^\ 
so  the  Lord  has  promised  that  no  labor  shall  be  in  vain  in  him — that 
he  will  count  what  is  done  to  the  least  of  his  brethren,  as  done  unto 
him — that  they  who  "  feed  the  flock  of  God,"  not  by  constraint  but  will- 

*  Augustine  brings  out  another  side  of  the  similitude  :  Stabulum  est  Ecclesia, 
ubi  reficiuntur  viatores  de  peregrinatione  redeuntes  in  seternam  patriam :  or  it  is 
an  inn  (Trai/5ox«'ov),  because  (Origen,  Horn.  34  in  Luc.)  universes  volentes  introire 
suspiciat. 

t  Ambrose  {Exp.  in  Luc,  1.  7,  c.  78)  :  Non  vacabat  Samaritano  huic  din  in 
terris  degere ;  redeundum  cd  crat.  unde  descenderat. 

X  Melancthon:  Si  quid  supererogaveris,  solvam:  quasi  dicat:  Accedimt  labo* 
res,  pericula,  inopia  consilii,  in  liis  omnibus  adero  et  juvabo  te. 


THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN".  263 

ingly ;  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind," — they,  "  when  the 
chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,"  "  shall  receive  a  crown  of  glory  that 
fadeth  not  away."     (1  Pet.  v.  2,  4.)* 

It  is  diflicult  enough  to  admire  the  divine  wisdom  with  which  the 
Saviour,  having  brought  to  an  end  this  aifecting  parable,  reverses  the 
question  of  the  lawyer,  and  asks,  "  Which  now  of  titese  tJoree  thinlcest 
thoti  was  neigltbor  unto  him  that  fell  aviong  the  thieves  ?"  The  lawyer 
had  asked,  •'  who  is  the  neighbor  to  whom  I  am  bound  to  show  the  ser- 
vice of  lovp?"  But  the  Lord  asks,  "Who  is  a  neighbor,  he  who  shows 
love,  or  he  who  shows  it  not?" — for  herein  lay  the  great  lesson,  that  it  is 
not  the  object  which  is  to  determine  the  love,  but  that  love  has  its  own 
measure  in  itself;  it  is  like  the  sun,  which  does  not  ask  on  what  it  shall 
shine,  or  what  it  shall  warm,  but  shines  and  warms  by  the  very  law 
of  its  own  being,  so  that  there  is  nothing  hidden  from  its  light  and  from 
its  heat.  The  lawyer  had  said,  "  Declare  to  me  my  neighbor  ;  what 
marks  a  man  to  be  such? — is  it  one  faith,  one  blood,  the  bonds  of  mutual 
benefits,  or  what  else,  that  I  may  know  to  whom  I  owe  this  debt  of  love?" 
The  Lord  rebukes  the  question  by  holding  up  before  him  a  man,  and  this 
a  despised  Samaritan,  who  so  far  from  asking  that  question,  freely  and 
largely  exercised  love  towards  one  who  certainly  had  none  of  the  signs 
such  as  the  lawyer  conceived  would  mark  out  a  neighbor  in  his  sense 
of  the  word.  The  parable  is  a  reply,  not  to  the  question,  for  to  that  it 
is  no  reply,!  but  to  the  spirit  out  of  which  the  question  proceeded.  It 
says,  "  You  ask  who  is  your  neighbor  ?  I  will  show  you  a  man  who 
asked  not  that  question,  and  then  your  own  heart  shall  be  judge  between 
you  and  him,  which  had  most  of  the  mind  of  God,  which  was  most  truly 
the  doer  of  his  will,  the  imitator  of  his  perfections."     The  parable  is  an 

*  Cyprian's  application  of  the  parable  {Ep.  51)  forms  a  sort  of  connecting  link 
between  these  two  interpretations,  the  literal  and  the  allegorical :  the  wounded 
man  is  a  sinning  brother,  in  this  particular  case  one  who  had  not  stood  steadfast  in 
the  time  of  persecution.  Cyprian,  who  desired  to  follow  the  milder  course  with 
these  lapsed,  and  to  readmit  them  to  Church  communion,  exclaims:  Jacct  ecce 
saucius  fratcr  ab  adversario  in  acie  vitlneratus.  Inde  diabolus  conatur  occidere, 
qiiem  vulneravit,  hinc  Christus  hortatur  ne  in  totnm  pereat  quem  redemit.  Cui  de 
duobns  assistemus,  in  cujus  ])artibus  stamus  1  Utrumne  diabolo  favemus  nt  peri- 
mat,  et  semianimem  fratrem  jacenteni,  sicut  in  evangelio  sacerdos  et  Levites.  pra;- 
terinuis  ?  An  vero  ut  sacerdotes  D'.'i  et  Christi.  qnod  Christus  et  doeuit  et  fecit 
imitantes,  vnlneratum  de  adversarii  faucibus  ra])inuis,  ut  curatum  Deo  judici 
reservemus.  Cf  Ambrosk,  De  Pccnit.,  1.  1,  c.  G;  and  Ciirysostom,  Ai/r.  JiuL, 
Oral.  8.  :l 

t  Maldonatus  is  the  only  commentator  I  have  seen  who  has  fairly  put  this,  and 
acknowledged  the  difficulty  which  is  on  the  fiicc  of  the  parable.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  merits  of  this  most  intolerant  and  most  abusive  Jesuit  (IMaldonatus  maledi- 
centissinins),  that  he  never  slights  a  difficulty,  nor  pretends  not  to  see  it,  but  fairly 
and  fully  states  it,  whether  he  can  resolve  it  or  not. 


264  THE  GOOD  SAMARITAN. 

appeal  to  a  better  principle  in  the  querist's  heart,  from  the  narrow  and 
unloving  theories  and  systems  in  which  he  had  been  trained.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  through  no  unwillingness  to  acknowledge  the  truth,  though 
it  has  something  of  that  appearance,  the  lawyer  in  reply  to  the  Lord's 
question,  Who  was  this  poor  man's  true  neighbor  1  circuitously  replies, 
"  He  ivho  sJioivcd  mercy  on  him ;"  grudging  to  give  the  honor  directly 
and  by  name  to  a  Samaritan.*  But  having  acknowledged  this,  whether 
grudgingly  or  freely,  "  Go,"  said  the  Lord  to  him,  now  we  trust  a 
humbler  and  larger-hearted  man,  "  (rO,  and  do  thou  likennse." 

These  last  words  will  hardly  allow  one  to  agree  with  those,  who  in 
later  times  have  maintained  that  this  parable  and  the  discourse  that  led 
to  it  are,  in  fact,  a  lesson  on  justification  by  faith — that  the  Lord  sent 
the  questioner  to  the  law,  to  the  end  that,  being  by  that  convinced  of  sin 
and  of  his  own  short-comings,  he  might  discover  his  need  of  a  Saviour. 
His  intention  seemed  rather  to  make  the  lawyer  aware  of  the  great  gulf 
which  lay  between  his  knowing  and  his  doing, — how  little  his  actual  ex- 
ercise of  love  kept  pace  with  his  intellectual  acknowledgment  of  the  debt 
of  love  due  from  him  to  his  fellow-men :  on  which  subject  no  doubt  he 
had  secret  misgivings  himself,  when  he  asked,  "Who  is  my  neighbor?" 
It  is  true  indeed  that  this  our  sense  of  how  short  our  practice  falls  of  our 
knowledge,  must  bring  us  to  the  conviction  that  we  cannot  live  by  the 
keeping  of  the  law,  that  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  flesh  shall  be  justi- 
fied— so  that  here  also  we  shall  get  at  last  to  faith  as  that  which  alone 
can  justify :  but  this  is  a  remoter  consequence,  not,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
the  Lmmediate  purpose  of  the  parable. 

*  So  Bengel :  Non  invitus  absinet  legisperitus  appellatione  propriA.  Samaritae. 


XVIIL 
THE    FRIEND    AT    MIDNIGHT. 

Luke  xi.  5-8, 

The  connection  between  this  parable  and  the  words  that  go  before  ia 
easy  to  be  traced.  The  disciples  had  asked  to  be  taught  in  what  words 
they  should  pray,  "  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John  also  taught  his  dis- 
ciples." He  graciously  gives  them  that  perfect  form  which  has  ever 
since  been  the  treasure  of  the  Church :  but  having  done  so.  he  instructs 
them  also  by  this  parable  in  what  spirit  they  must  pray,  even  in  the 
spirit  of  persevering  faith,  '-continuing  instant  in  prayer."  There  is  the 
same  argument  as  in  the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Judge,  one  from  the  less 
to  the  greater,  or  more  accurately,  from  the  worse  to  the  better, — but 
with  this  difference,  that  here  the  narrow-heartedness  and  selfishness  of 
man  is  set  against  the  liberality  of  God.  while  there  it  is  his  unrighteous- 
ness which  is  tacitly  contrasted  with  the  righteousness  of  God.  The 
conclusion  is,  if  selfish  man  can  yet  be  won  by  prayer  and  importunity 
to  give,  and  unjust  man  to  do  right,  how  much  more  certainly  shall  the 
bountiful  Lord  bestow,  and  the  righteous  Lord  do  justice.*  And  perhaps 
there  is  this  further  difference,  that  here  it  is  intercessory  prayer,  prayer 
for  the  needs  of  others,  in  which  we  are  bidden  to  be  instant;  while 
there  it  is  rather  for  our  own  needs.  Yet  must  we  not  urge  in  either 
case,  the  illustration  so  far,  as  to  conceive  of  prayer  as  though  it  were 
an  overcoming  of  God's  reluctance,  when  it  is,  in  fact,  a  laying  hold  of 
his  highest  willingness. f     For  though  there  is  an  aspect  under  which 

*  Aug^ustine  {Ep.  1.30,  c.  8):  Ut  liinc  intelligcremiis,  si  dare  cogitur,  qui  cilm 
dormiat,  a.  petente  excitatur  invitus,  (juanti  det  benignius,  qui  noc  donnirc  novit, 
et  dorniicntes  nos  excitat  ut  pctamus. 

t  This  is  finely  expressed  by  Dante  {Parad.  1.  20),  in  words  which  have  as 
mucli  a  theological  as  a  political  interest : — 

Regnum  coelnrum  violenzia  pate 

Da  caUlo  amnre  e  da  viva  speranza, 

Che  vince  la  ilivina  volontate, 

Non  a  guisa  che  1'  uomo  all'  uom  sovranza, 

Ma  vince  lei,  perchii  vuole  c.«ser  vinta, 

E  vinla  vince  con  sua  bcninanza. 


266  THE  FRIEND  AT  MIDNIGHT. 

God  may  present  himself  to  us,  similar  to  that  of  the  Unjust  Judge  and 
this  churlish  neighbor,  yet  is  there  ever  this  difference, — that  his  is  a 
seeming  neglect  and  unwillingness  to  grant,  theirs  a  real.  Under  such 
an  aspect  of  seeming  unwillingness  to  hear,  did  the  merciful  Son  of  man 
present  himself  to  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman.  (Matt.  xv.  21.)  But 
why  ?  Not  because  he  was  reluctant  to  give,  but  because  he  knew  that 
her  faith  was  strong  enough  to  bear  this  trial,  and  that  in  the  end,  though 
the  trial  for  the  moment  might  be  hard,  it  would  prove  a  blessing  to  her, 
!  more  mightily  calling  out  that  faith ;  since  faith  ever  needs  to  find  some 
L  resistance,  before  it  can  be  called  out  in  any  strength.  In  like  manner 
the  angel  of  the  Lord,  the  great  Covenant  Angel,  contended  with  Jacob, 
and  wrestled  with  him  all  the  night,  yet  allowed  himself  at  the  last  to 
be  overcome  by  him,  and  left  a  blessing  behind  him ;  and  Jacob  hence- 
forth was  Israel,  that  is,  was  permanently  lifted  up  through  that  conflict 
into  a  higher  state,  marked  by  that  nobler  name  which  henceforth  he 
bore, — "  for  as  a  Prince  hast  thou  power  with  God  and  with  men,  and 
hast  prevailed."     (Gen.  xxxii.  28.) 

The  parable  with  which  now  we  have  to  do,  rests  on  a  humble  and 
familiar  incident  of  our  common  life  :  and  spoken  to  humble  men.  it  may 
easily  have  come  within  the  limits  of  their  own  experience :  "  Which  of 
you  shall  have  a  friend,  and  shall  go  unto  him  at  midnight,  and  say 
unto  liim,  F)-icnd,  lend  me  three  loaves :  for  a  friend  of  mine  in  his  jour- 
ney is  come  to  me,  and  I  have  nothing  to  set  befcnx  him  ?"  I  do  not  see 
in  these  words  any  deeper  meaning  than  lies  on  the  surface ;  yet  it  is 
well  worth  observing  that  they  have  afforded  ample  scope  for  allegorical 
and  mystical  interpretations,  and  some  of  these  of  considerable  beauty. 
For  instance,  it  has  been  said  that  the  guest  newly  arrived  is  the  spirit 
of  man,  which,  weary  of  its  wanderings  in  the  world,  of  a  sudden  desires 
heavenly  sustenance, — something  that  will  truly  nourish  and  satisfy  it, — 
begins  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness.  But  the  host,  that  is, 
man,  in  so  far  as  he  is  "  sensual,  having  not  the  Spirit,"  has  nothing  to 
set  before  this  unexpected  guest,  and  in  this  his  spiritual  poverty  and 
distress,*  is  here  taught  to  appeal  unto  God,  that  from  him  he  may  re- 
ceive that  which  is  bread  indeed,  and  spiritual  nourishment  for  the  soul.f 

*  " At  midnight :"    In  medift.  tribulatione  constitutus.    Augustine. 

t  Bede  {Horn,  in  Laic,  xi.) :  Amicus  qui  venit  de  via.,  ipse  noster  est  animus, 
qui  toties  &,  nobis  recedit  quoties  ad  appetcnda  terrena  et  temporalia  foris  vagatur. 
Eedit  ergo,  coelestique  alimonia  rcfici  desiderat,  cfim  in  so  reversus  superna  cceperit 
ac  spiritualia  meditari.  De  quo  pulchrfe  qui  petierat,  adjungit,  se  non  habere  quod 
pontmt  ante  ilium,  quoniam  animse  post  seculi  tcnebras  Deum  suspiranti,  nil  prteter 
eum  cogitare  nilque  libet  intueri.  And  Bernard  {In  Rogat.,  Scrvi.):  Amicum  ve- 
nientcm  ad  me,  non  alium  intelligo  quam  meipsum,  ctim  transitoria  deserens,  ad 
cor  rodeo.    Venit  amicus  de  regione  longinqua,  ubi  pascere  porcos,  ct  ipsoinim  sili- 


THE  FRIEND  AT  MIDNIGHT.  267 

There  is,  besides,  another  interesting  adaptation  of  the  parable,  which 
Augustine  gives.  He  is  urging  upon  his  hearers  the  duty  of  being  able 
to  give  a  reason  for  their  faith,  a  reason  not  merely  defensive,  but  one 
which  shall  win  and  persuade :  and  this,  because  it  might  often  happen 
that  some  one  from  the  yet  heathen  world,  or  it  might  be  a  heretic,  or 
even  a  nominal  Catholic,  weary  of  his  wanderings  in  error,  weary  of  the 
bondage  of  sin,  and  desiring  now  to  know  something  of  the  Christian 
faith,  but  lacking  confidence  or  opportunity  to  go  to  the  bisliop  or  cate- 
chists.  might  betake  himself  to  some  one  of  them,  desiring  fuller  instruc- 
tion in  Ihe  faith.  While  this  was  possible,  he  therefore  urges  upon  all, 
that  they  have  what  to  communicate ;  or  if,  when  such  occasion  arises, 
when  such  a  friend  comes  to  them,  craving  spiritual  hospitality,  they 
find  they  have  nothing  to  set  before  him,  he  instructs  them  out  of  this 
parable  what  they  should  do,  and  to  whom  they  should  betake  themselves 
for  the  supply  of  their  own  needs  and  the  needs  of  their  friend, — that 
they  go  to  God,  praying  that  he  would  teach  them,  that  so  they  might 
be  enabled  to  teach  others.*  Vitringa's  explanation!  is  a  modification 
of  this  last.  With  him  the  guest  is  the  heathen  world ;  the  host  who 
receives  him,  the  servants  and  disciples  of  Jesus,  who  are  taught  from 
this  parable  that  they  can  only  nourish  those  that  come  to  them  with 
bread  of  life,  as  they  themselves  shall  receive  the  same  from  God,  which 
therefore  they  must  solicit  with  all  perseverance  and  constancy  of  sup- 

qua.s  insatiabiliter  esurire  solebat.  Venit  fame  laborans,  sed  heu  me !  pauperem 
eligit  hospitem,  et  vacuum  ingreditur  habitaculura.  Quid  faciam  huic  amico  mi- 
scro  et  miserabilil  Fateor  amicus  est,  sed  ego  mendicus.  Quid  venisti  ad  me, 
amice,  in  necessitate  tanta,1  Festina,  inquit,  discurre,  suscita  aruicum  tuum  ilium 
magnum,  quo  majorem  dilectioncm  nemo  habet.  sed  neque  substantiam  ami)liorcm. 
Clania  et  die,  Amice,  commoda  miiii  tres  panes.  Compare  Augustine  {Qintst. 
Evang..  1.  2.  qu.  21);  and  a  discourse  wbich  is  not  Augustlnes,  but  lias  sometimes 
been  attributed  to  him  {Serm.  85,  Appendix),  where  the  explanation  given,  at  first 
sight  seems  slightly  different,  but  in  reality  comes  to  the  same  thing.  Every  good 
desire,  visiting  the  soul  and  awakening  in  it  a  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteous- 
ness,— a  longing  after  God.  is  the  guest  from  the  way,  whose  hunger  can  only  be 
satisfied  by  spiritual  nourishment — l)y  the  bread  from  heaven, 

*  Serm.  105,  c.  2:  Venit  tibi  amicus  de  via.,  id  est,  de  vita,  hujus  seculi,  in  qui 
omnes  velut  peregrini  transcimt.  nee  ullus  quasi  possessor  manet:  sed  omni  homini 
dicitur,  Refectus  es,  transi,  age  iter,  da  venturo  locum.  Aut  fort6  de  via  mala, 
hoc  est,  de  vita  mala,  fatigatus  nescio  quis  amicus  tuus,  non  inveniens  veritatem, 
qua  audita  et  percepta  beatus  fiat :  -sed  lassatus  in  omni  cupiditato  et  egestate 
seculi,  venit  ad  te,  tanquam  ad  Christianum,  et  dicit :  Redde  niihi  rationem, 
fac  me  Christianum.  Et  interrogat  quod  fortfe  tu  per  simplicitatem  fide!  ncsi^iebas, 
et  non  est  unde  reficias  esurientem,  et  te  admonitus  invenis  indigentem,  Tibi  fort6 
sufRciebat  simplex  fides,  illi  non  sufficit,  Nunquid  deserendus  est  ?  nuuquid  de 
domo  prqjiciendusl  Ergo  ad  ipsum  Dominum,  ad  ipsum  cum  quo  familia  requi- 
escit,  pulsa  orando,  pete,  insta. 

t  Erklar.  d.  Parab.,  p.  763. 


268  THE  FRIEND  AT  MIDNIGHT. 

plication, — at  all  events  a  most  important  truth,  whether  it  is  here  to  be 
found  or  not,  for  those  that  have  to  feed  the  flock  of  Christ*  In  like 
manner  in  the  "  three  "  loaves  various  Scriptural  triads  have  been  traced, 
as  for  instance,  it  has  sometimes  been  said  that  the  host  craving  the 
three  loaves,  craves  the  knowledge  of  the  Trinity,  of  God  in  his  three 
persons,!  sometimes  again,  it  is  the  three  choicest  gifts  and  graces  of 
the  Spirit,  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  which  he  desires  may  be  his4 

When  he  from  within  replies,  "  Trouble  me  not,  the  door  is  noiv  shut;" 
it  means  evidently  more  than  merely  closed ;  he  would  say,  "  The  door 
is  fastened,  barred,  and  bolted,  the  house  is  made  up  for  the  night,  and 
at  this  unseasonable  hour  I  cannot  disturb  my  children,  who  are  now 
with  me  in  bed,  by  rising  and  giving  thee."  Theophylact  makes  these 
last  words  yet  further  significant ;  "  My  children  are  with  me  in  bed ;" 
that  is,  "All  who  by  earlier  application  to  me  have  obtained  right  to  be 
called  my  children,  have  secured  their  admission  into  my  kingdom,  and 
are  now  resting  with  me  there  ;  it  is  too  late  to  apply,  the  door  is  closed, 
the  time  is  past."^  The  lesson  to  be  here  learned  would  then  be  this, 
that  through  earnest  importunate  prayer,  even  lost  opportunities  may  be 
made  up  and  recovered.  || 

"  I  say  unto  you,  Though  lie  will  not  rise  and  give  him,  because  he  is 
his  friend,  yet  because  of  his  importunity  lie  will  rise  a^nd  give  him  as 
many  as  he  needeth"  Our  version,  translating  "  importunity"  has 
rather  softened  the  original  word,  which  might  be  rendered  by  a  stronger 
/  term  ;  it  is  his  "  shatnelessness  "1'  which  extorts  the  gift.  At  the  same 
time,  the  shamelessness  which  is  here  attributed  to  the  petitioner  is 
greatly  mitigated  by  the  consideration,  that  it  is  not  for  himself  but  for 
another,  and  that  he  may  not  be  wanting  in  the  sacred  duties  of  hospi- 

*  Augustine :  Unde  vivo,  inde  dice ;  unde  pascor,  hoc  ministro.  Compare  a 
sermon  by  Guerricus,  in  tlie  Benedict,  edit,  of  St.  Bernard,  v.  2,  p.  1023. 

•f  AuGusTiNK,  Enarr.  in  Ps.  cii.  5.     Qu(Est.  Evang.,  1.  2,  c.  21. 

\  Thanler  gives  an  ingenious  reason,  why  it  should  be  rather  charity  alone :  Ut 
enim  quamlibet  pretosia  mundi  cibaria  neque  utilia,  neque  jucunda,  neque  comes- 
tabilia  sunt  absque  pane,  ita  etiam  quidquid  agas  Deo  non  multiim  placet,  si 
absque  caritate  fiat.     Euthymius  :  "Aprovs  •  ras  ^peirriKas  ruv  ^yx'^"  Si5acrKa\ias. 

§  Augustine :  Quid  pulsas  sine  tempore,  qui  piger  fuisti  cum  tempore  1  Dies 
fuit,  et  in  lumine  non  ambulasti,  nox  supervenit,  et  pulsare  coepisti. 

II  It  is  possible  that  the  word  which  we  translate  ''children"  would  be  fitter 
translated  ''servants."  and  the  sense  then  would  be,  "I  cannot  myself  come,  and 
I  have  none  whom  I  can  send;  my  household  as  well  as  myself  are  gone  to  rest." 
It  is  clear  that  to  iraiSia  has  been  so  understood  by  Augustine  {Ep.  130,  c.  8) :  Jam 
cum  suis  servis  donnientem  f)etitor  instantissimus  et  molestissimus  excitavit. 

Tl  'Ai/cttSeia.  The  Vulgate  gives  it  by  a  happily  chosen  word,  improbitas  which, 
like  the  adjective  from  which  it  is  drived,  may  describe  unweariedness  in  a  good 
cause  as  well  as  in  a  bad.  . 


THE  FRIEND  AT  MIDNIGHT.  269 

tality,  that  he  so  pertinaciously  urges  his  request.*  Through  this  per- 
tinacity f  he  at  lengtii  obtains,  not  merely  the  three  wliich  he  asked,  but 
"  as  many  as  lie  iieedeth"  like  that  woman  already  referred  to,  from  whom 
the  Lord  at  first  seemed  to  have  shut  up  all  his  compassion,  but  to  whom 
at  last  he  opened  the  full  treasure-house  of  his  grace,  and  bid  her  to  help 
herself,  saying,  '•  0  woman,  great  is  thy  faith  !  be  it  unto  thee  even  as 
thou  wilt."  Augustine  too  observes,  that  he  who  would  not  at  first  so 
inuch  as  send  one  of  his  house,  himself  now  rises,  and  supplies  all  the 
wants  of  his  friend  ;  and  adds  on  the  return  of  prayers  not  being  always 
immediate  many  excellent  observations,  as  this,  When  sometimes  God 
gives  tardily,  he  commends  his  gifts,  he  does  not  deny  them ; — Things 
long  desired,  are  more  sweet  in  their  obtaiument :  those  quickly  given, 
soon  lose  their  value : — and  again,  God  for  a  time  withholds  his  gifts, 
that  thou  mayest  learn  to  desire  great  things  greatly. ;{: — Faith,  and  pa- 
tience, and  humility,  are  all  called  into  exercise  by  this  temporary  denial 
of  a  request.  It  is  then  seen  who  will  pray  always  and  not  faint,  and 
who  will  prove  but  as  the  leopard,  which  if  it  does  not  attain  it.s  prey  at 
the  first  spring,  turns  sullenly  back  and  cannot  be  induced  to  repeat  the 
attempt.^  The  parable  concludes  with  words  in  which  the  same  duty  of 
prayer  is  commended,  and  now  no  longer  in  a  figure,  but  plainly :  ^-Aiid 
I  say  unto  you,  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you  ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find  ; 
ktiock.  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you."\\  The  three  repetitions  of  the  I 
command  are  more  than  mere  repetitions ;  since  to  seek  is  more  than  to 
ask.  and  to  knock  than  to  seek ;  and  thus  in  this  ascending  scale  of 
earnestness,  an  exhortation  is  given,  not  merely  to  prayer,  but  to  increas- 

*  In  tilt-  same  manner  Abraham's  conversation  M-ith  God  (Gen.  xviii.  23-33), 
which  almost  rises  into  a  Hke  ai/aiSeta.  is  not  the  asking  any  thing  for  himself,  but 
interce.ssioii  for  the  people  of  Sodora. 

t  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  cii.  5):  Extorsit  ta;dio  quod  non  possit  merito. 
The  Jews  have  a  ]iroverb.  Impudentia  est  regmim  sine  corona;  and  again  they  say, 
Lnpiidentia  ctiani  coram  Deo  jjrolieit.  Von  Meyer  {Blatter  fiir  hohcrc  Wahr/ieit,  v. 
5,  p.  45)  has  sinni-  interesting  remarks  on  the  avaiSaa  of  this  petitioner,  and  how  it 
is  reconcilable  with  the  humility  whieh  is  praised  in  the  i)ublican.  (Luke  xviii,  13.) 

:j:  Cum  alii|uando  tardiiis  dat  comniendat  dona,  non  negat. — Diu  desiderata  did- 
cins  obtiiientnr  <Mt6  data  vilescunt;  and  again,  Ut  diseas  magna  magnfe  desiderare. 

(\  Stiilla:  Sunt  multi  cpii  naturae  sunt  et  conditionis  leonis])ardi.  cpii  si  jjrimo 
saltu  vel  secundo  non  assequitur  pnedam,  non  amplius  earn  insequitur.  Ita  isti 
sunt  <iui  prinift  oratione  vel  secunda  non  exauditi,  protinus  ab  oratione  cessant,  et 
impatieiitiic  not^  signantur. 

II  Augustine  {De  Scr7n.  Dom.  in  Man.,  1.  2,  c.  21)  had  made  only  one  of  these 
three  commands  (Matt.  vii.  7)  to  have  direct  reference  to  pravor,  while  the  other 
two  he  referred  to  other  form.s  of  earnest  striving  after  the  kingdom  of  God ; — but 
in  his  Retractations  he  says,  no  doubt  more  accurately  :  Ad  instantissimam  oratio- 
nem  omnia  referuntur.  Their  position  in  relation  to  this  parable  leaves  no  doubt 
on  the  matter. 


270  THE  FRIEND  AT  MIDNIGHT. 

ing  urgency  in  prayer,  even  till  the  suppliant  carry  away  the  blessing 
which  he  requires,  and  which  God  is  only  waiting  for  the  due  time  to 
arrive  that  he  may  give  him.*  All  that  we  have  here  is  indeed  a  com- 
mentary on  words  of  our  Lord  spoken  at  another  time,  "  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force." 

*  Augustine :  Deus  ad  hoc  se  peti  vult,  ut  capaces  donorum  ejus  fiant,  qui 
petunt ;  and  again :  Non  dat  nisi  petenti,  ne  det  non  capienti. 


XIX. 
THE    RICH    FOOL. 

Luke  xii.  16-21. 

In  the  midst  of  one  of  our  Lord's  most  interesting  discourses  an  inter- 
ruption occurs.  One  of  his  hearers  had  so  slight  an  interest  in  the 
spiritual  truths  which  he  was  communicating,  but  had  so  much  at  heart 
the  redressing  of  a  wrong,  which  he  believed  himself  to  have  sustained 
in  his  worldlj'  interests,  that,  as  would  seem,  he  could  not  wait  for  a 
more  convenient  season,  but  broke  in  upon  the  Lord's  teaching  with  that 
request  which  gave  occasion  for  this  parable,  "  Master,  speak  to  my 
brother,  that  he  divide  the  inheritance  with  me."  It  has  been  sometimes 
taken  for  granted,  that  this  man  who  desired  a  division  of  the  inherit- 
^ance,  had  do  right  to  what  he  was  here  claiming,  and  was  only  seeking 
to  make  an  unfair  use  of  the  Saviour's  influence.  But  how  much  does 
this  supposition  weaken  the  moral.  All  men,  without  any  especial 
teaching,  would  condemn  such  unrighteousness  as  this.  But  that  love 
of  the  world,  which,  keeping  itself  within  limits  of  decency  and  legality, 
yet  takes  all  tlie  affections  of  the  heart  from  God,  and  robs  divine  things 
of  all  their  interest — against  that  men  have  need  to  be  continually 
warned  ;  and  such  a  warning  is  here, — a  warning,  not  against  unright- 
eousness, but  against  covetousness  ;*  for  this  may  display  itself  in  the 
manner  and  temper  in  which  we  hold  and  reclaim  our  own  as  truly  as 
in  the  undue  snatching  at  that  of  others: — "Take  heed  and  beware  of 
covetousness."!     From  this  man's  confident  appeal  to  Jesus,  made  in 

*  Not  dSiKi'o.  but  trXeove^la.  It  is  exactly  opposed  to  the  avrdpKfta,  which  has 
always  enoii;Lrh.  as  the  trXeovf^la  has  never. 

t  In  the  Vulgate.  Cavete  ab  omni  avaritifl.  SoLachmann.  anh  ndcrrts  irXeoue^la^. 
The  emphasis  on  this  "all"  is  strikingly  brought  out  by  Augustine  (Scrm.  107, 
c.  3),  as  though  Christ  were  herein  saying  to  each  that  stood  by,  Fortfe  tu  avarum 
et  cupidum  diceres,  si  qujereret  aliena ;  Ego  autem  dice  cupid6  et  avarfe  non  ai)i)etas 
nee  tua. . . .  Non  solium  avarus  est  qui  rapit  aliena :  sediet  illc  avarus  est  qai  cupid6 
servat  sua. 


272  THE  RICH  FOOL. 

the  presence  of  the  whole  multitude,  it  is  probable  that  his  brother  did 
withhold  from  him  a  part  of  the  patrimony,  which  fell  justly  to  his 
share.  But  it  was  the  extreme  inopportuneness  of  the  season  which  he 
chose  for  urging  his  claim,  that  showed  him  as  one  in  whom  the  worldly 
prevailed  to  the  danger  of  making  him  totally  irreceptive  of  the  spiritual, 
and  that  drew  this  warning  from  the  lips  of  the  Lord.  For  that  he 
should  have  desired  Christ  as  an  umpire  or  arbitrator, — and  such  only 
the  word  in  the  original  means  (see  Acts  vii.  27,  35 ;  Exod.  ii.  14),  such 
too  the  Lord,  without  publicly  recognized  authority,  could  only  have 
been* — this  in  itself  had  nothing  sinful.  St.  Paul  himself  recommended 
this  manner  of  settling  differences  (1  Cor.  vi.  1-6),  and  how  weighty  a 
burden  this  arbitration  afterwards  became  to  the  bishops  of  the  Church 
is  well  known. t 

In  the  request  itself  there  was  nothing  sinful,  yet  still  the  Lord  ab- 
solutely refused  to  accede  to  it ;  he  declined  here,  as  in  every  other  case, 
to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  civil  life.  It  was  indeed  most  true,  that  his 
word  and  doctrine  received  into  the  hearts  of  men,  would  modify  and 
change  the  whole  framework  of  civil  society,  that  his  word  and  his  life 
was  the  seed  out  of  which  a  Christendom  would  evolve  itself,  but  it  was 
from  the  inward  to  the  outward  that  he  would  work.  His  adversaries 
more  than  once  sought  to  thrust  upon  him  the  exercise  of  a  jurisdiction 
which  he  so  carefully  avoided,  as  in  the  case  of  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery  (supposing  that  passage  to  belong  to  the  true  Gospel  of  St. 
John), — as  in  that  of  the  Roman  tribute.  But  each  time  he  avoided  the 
snare  which  was  laid  for  him,  keeping  himself  within  the  limits  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  world,  as  that  from  which  alone  effectual  improve- 
ments in  the  outer  life  of  man  could  proceed.^ 

*  Grotius  explains  fxepLo-T-ffs :  Qui  familiae  herciscundas,  communi  dividundo, 
aut  finibus  regnndi.s  arbiter  sumiter.  Lachmann  has  admitted  KptT-fjv.  in  the  place 
of  SiKa(rT7}v,  into  his  text. — See  Tertullian  (Adv.  Marc,  1.  4,  c.  28)  for  the  reasons 
which  moved  the  Lord  here  to  use  the  very  phrase  with  which  the  Israelite 
(Exod.  ii.  14)  put  back  the  arbitration  of  Moses ;  and  in  Hammond's  Paraphrase 
(in  loc.). 

t  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxviii.  115)  complains  of  this  distraction  from 
spiritual  objects,  and  that  he  was  not  allowed  to  say  to  those  who  came  to  him 
with  cases  for  arbitration,  "  Who  made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you  V  And 
Bernard,  writing  to  Pope  Eugcnius,  especially  warns  him  against  this  distraction 
of  mind,  arising  from  the  multitude  of  these  worldly  causes  which  would  be 
brought  before  him. 

:j:  The  latter  part  of  ver.  15  is  difficult,  not  that  there  is  any  difficulty  in  tracing 
the  connection  of  thought,  or  the  meaning,  but  that  the  sentence  is  more  burdened 
with  words  than  can  be  conveniently  taken  up  into  the  construction.  Euthymius, 
Theophylact,  and  others,  and  in  modern  times  Paulus,  would  make  this  the  mean- 
ing: When  a  man  possesses  much  abundance,  yet  is  not  his  (bodily)  life  one 
among  his  possessions ;  in  short,  A  man,  though  he  is  rich,  cannot  live  for  ever, 


THE  RICH  FOOL.  273 

The  Lord  having  uttered  a  warning  against  covetousness,  a  sin 
which  is  always  united  with  the  trusting  in  uncertain  riches  (1  Tim.  vi. 
17),  for  who  that  did  not  trust  in  them  as  a  source  of  good,  as  a  means 
of  blessedness,  would  be  so  eager  in  their  accumulation  ? — he  proceeds 
to  show  by  a  parable  the  folly  of  such  trust, — how,  though  man  is  ever 
dreaming  that  these  worldly  goods  are  the  source  of  happiness,  and  is 
thus  drawn  to  trust  in  them,  rather  than  in  the  living  God,  yet  in  truth 
they  cannot  constitute  a  man's  blessedness.  For,  besides  other  reasons, 
that  only  is  blessedness,  which  has  in  it  security  and  endurance ;  but 
that  earthly  life,  which  is  the  necessary  condition  of  drawing  enjoyment 
out  of  worldly  abundance,  may  come  to  an  end  at  any  moment,  and  then 
will  ensue  utter  loss  and  destitution  to  him  who  has  thus  been  laying  up 
treasure  for  himself,  instead  of  seeking  to  be  ricji  toward  God. 

"  The  ground  of  a  certain  rich  man  brought  fortli  jilentifully}''  It 
was  said  long  before,  "  The  prosperity  of  fools  shall  destroy  them"  (Prov. 
i.  32),  a  truth  to  which  this  man  sets  his  seal,  for  his  prosperity  ensnares 
him  in  a  deeper  worldliiiess,  draws  out  the  selfish  propensities  of  his 
heart  into  stronger  action.*  In  this  respect  how  deep  a  knowledge  of 
the  human  heart  the  warning  of  the  Psalmist  displays,  "  If  riches  increase, 
set  not  thy  heart  upon  them."  It  might,  at  first  sight,  appear,  that  the 
time  when  we  should  be  in  chiefest  danger  of  setting  our  heart  upou 
riches,  would  be  when  we  saw  them  escaping  from  our  grasp, — perishing 

or,  Riches  will  not  lengthen  his  life.  It  may  certainly  be  said  in  favor  of  this  ex- 
planation, that  it  suits  well  enough  with  the  parable  which  follows,  and  it  might 
pass,  if  it  were  this  kind  of  flat  morality  which  our  Lord  were  in  the  habit  of  in- 
culcating, or  if  fcoTj  were  ever  in  Scripture  degraded  to  this  lower  sense,  and  used 
to  designate  the  mere  soulish  life,  the  ^vx^-  It  is  much  better  to  take  ^  ^oit;  here 
in  that  deeper  sense,  which  in  Scripture  it  has  ever,  as  man's  true  life, — his  bless- 
edness ;  and  then  with  Shultz  (lii.  d.  Parabd  mm  Voncalter,  p.  79)  to  put  a  comma 
before  and  after  4v  t^  nfpta-txeveii'  rtv],  and  tran.slate  thus :  When  a  man  comes  to 
have  abundance  («)/  t.  TrepKr.  nvl).  his  life  (his  true  life, — his  blessedness)  does  not 
grow  out  of  his  wordly  goods.  Thus  will  be  preserved  all  the  force  of  the  preposi- 
tion Sk,  e.xpressing  the  springing  up  or  the  growing  out  of  one  thing  from  another 
i^see  Luke  xvi.  9;  Acts  i.  18;  John  iii.  5,  6;  xviii.  3G,  at  which  last  place  the  Lord 
asserts,  his  kingdom  grows  not  out  of  an  earthly  root),  and  then  the  parable  is 
brought  in  cofirmation.  The  sudden  taking  away  of  the  rich  worldling's  goods,  or 
which  comes  to  the  same  thing,  his  sudden  taking  away  from  them,  shows  that 
his  lifi'.  his  true  blessedness,  was  not  from  them, — that  he  had  made  a  fearful 
mistake  in  supposing  that  it  was :  since  the  very  idea  of  blessedness  involves  that 
of  permanence,  not  of  something  that  may  slip  from  under  a  man's  feet  at  any 
moment,  which  a  happiness  linked  to  a  merely  earthly  life,  and  dependent  upon 
the  duration  of  that  life,  is  ever  liable  to  do;  and  then,  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
parable,  a  glimpse  of  the  true  (a-fj  is  opened  to  us  as  being  a  irXouTejj/  els  @e6i>,  a 
life,  a  blessedness,  which  is  eternal  as  the  God  upon  whom  it  is  built. 

*  Ambrose :  Dat  tibi  foecunditatcm  Dcus,  ut  aut  vincat  aut  coudcmnct  avari- 
tiam  tuam. 

18 


274  THE  RICH  FOOL. 

from  under  our  hand.  But  all  experience  testifies  the  contrary, — that 
earthly  losses  are  the  remedy  for  covetousness,  while  increase  in  worldly 
goods  is  that  which  chiefly  provokes  to  it,  serving,  not  as  water  to  quench, 
but  as  fuel  to  augment,  the  fire  :*  "  He  that  loveth  silver  shall  not  be 
satisfied  with  silver,  nor  he  that  loveth  abundance  with  increase."  (Eccl. 
V.  13.)  St.  Basil,  in  the  opening  of  his  noble  sermonf  upon  this  para- 
ble, observes  :  "  There  are  two  manners  of  temptations,  either  afilictions 
torment  the  heart,  as  gold  in  the  furnace,  through  the  trial  of  faith  work- 
ing patience,  or  often  the  very  prosperities  of  life  are  too  many  in  place 
of  other  temptation."  But  it  seems  a  certain  exaggeration  when  he  ex- 
plains, as  many  others  have  done,  the  following  words,  ^'he  thouglit 
within  Idmsdf  saying^  What  shall  I  do  V  as  though  they  were  the 
utterance  of  one  brought  to  sore  straits  and  difficulties  through  the  very 
abundance,  for  the  sake  of  which  others  were  envying  him, — as  though 
they  were  the  anxious  deliberations  of  one  that  was  now  at  his  wit's  end, 
and  knew  not  which  way  he  should  turn,  who  was  in  as  painful  perplex- 
ity through  his  riches  as  others  are  through  their  poverty.  J; 

Rather,  we  should  say,  that  the  curtain  is  here  drawn  back,  and  we 
are  admitted  into  the  inner  council-chamber  of  a  worldling's  heart, — 
rejoicing  over  his  abundance,  and  realizing  to  the  very  letter  the  making 
"  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof"  As  far  as  he  may  be 
said  to  be  perplexed,  this  is  his  perplexity:  '•'•  Ihave  no  room  ichere  to 
bestoiv  my  fruits.''''  It  has  been  well  answered  to  him,  "  Thou  Jtast  barns, 
— the  bosoms  of  the  needy, — the  houses  of  the  widows, — the  mouths  of 
orphans  and  of  infants."  ^  If  he  had  listened  to  the  prudent  admonition 
of  the  son  of  Sirach  (xxix.  12),  "  Shut  up  alms  in  thy  storehouses,"  he 
would  not  have  found  his  barns  too  narrow.     To  one  thus  ignorant  where 


*  Plutarch  in  his  excellent  little  treatise,  Tlepi  <pi\oir\ovTias,  applies  to  the 
covetous  the  line, 

Tb  (pdpjxaKSv  (Xov  r^u  v6(Tov  fxii^w  iroiu, 

and  the  same  truth  is  confessed  in  the  Latin  proverb :  Avarum  irritat  pecunia,  non 
satiat.  Compare  Seneca,  Ad.  Hclv.,  c.  11;  and  the  fine  Eastern  tale  of  Abdallah, 
the  camel-driver,  has  the  same  moral.     See  also  Augustine,  Serm.  50,  c.  4. 

t  Ed.  Bened.,  Paris,  1722,  v.  2,  p.  43 :  and  in  the  new  Paris  reprint,  v.  2,  p.  60. 

^  So  Augustine :  Turbavit  hominem  copia  plusquam  inopia.  And  Grotius 
quotes  in  this  view:  Crcscentcm  sequitur  cura  pecuniam.  Tlius  too  Gregory 
{Moral.,  1.  15,  c.  22):  O  angustia  ex  satietate  nata  !  De  ubertate  agri  angustatur 
animus  avari.  Dicens  namque,  Quid  faciam  1  profecto  indicat  quia  votorum 
suorum  affectibus  pressus  sub  quodam  rerum  fasce  laborabat.  But  Unger's  is  a 
better  account  of  these  words :  Opulentum  describit  parabola  elatd  ddiberantem. 

§  Ambrose  (£>e  Nabutlie,  c.  7) :  Habes  apothecas,  inopum  sinus,  viduarum  do- 
mus,  era  infantiura.  There  is  much  else  that  is  excellent  on  this  parable.  Cf. 
Augustine,,  Serm.  36,*c.  9. 


THE  RICH  FOOL.  275 

to  bestow  his  goods  and  so  in  danger  of  losing  them.  Augustine  gives 
this  earnest  affectionate  admonition :  "  God  desires  not  that  thou  shouldst 
lose  thy  riches,  but  that  thou  shouldst  change  their  place;  he  has  given 
thee  a  counsel,  which  do  thou  understand.  Suppose  a  friend  should 
enter  thy  house,  and  should  find  that  thou  hadst  lodged  thy  fruits  on  a 
damp  floor,  and  he,  knowing  by  chance  the  tendency  of  those  fruits  to 
spoil,  whereof  thou  wert  ignorant,  should  give  thee  counsel  of  this  sort, 
saying,  Brother,  thou  losest  the  things  which  thou  hast  gathered  with 
great  labor  ;  thou  hast  placed  them  in  a  damp  place ;  in  a  few  days  they 
will  corrupt ; — And  what,  brother,  shall  I  do  ? — Raise  them  to  a  higher 
room  ; — thou  wouldst  listen  to  thy  brother  suggesting  that  thou  shouldst 
raise  thy  fruits  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  floor,  and  thou  wilt  not  listen 
to  Christ  advising  that  thou  raise  thy  treasure  from  earth  to  heaven, 
where  that  will  not  indeed  be  restored  to  thee  which  thou  layest  up.  for 
he  would  have  thee  lay  up  earth  that  thou  mayest  receive  heaven,  lay  up 
perishable  things  that  thou  mayest  receive  eternal."* 

This  would  have  been  Jiis  wisdom,  but  he  determines  otherwise — not 
to  provide  thus  for  himself  "  bags  which  wax  not  old,  a  treasure  in  the 
heaven  which  faileth  not"  (ver.  33).  but  on  the  contrary,  '■'  I ivill  indl 
doioi  my  barns  and  build  greater^  and  tlicre  tvillj^  bestow  all  my  fruits 
and  my  goods.''''  "  Observe,"  says  Theophylact  on  these  words,  "another 
folly, — my  goods,  and  my  fruits. — for  he  did  not  count  that  he  had  these 
from  God,  else,  as  a  steward  of  God,  he  would  otherwise  have  disposed 
of  them,  but  he  counted  them  the  products  of  his  own  labors, — wherefore 
separating  them  exclusively  for  himself,  he  said,  wy  goods,  and  ?»y  fruits." 
Yet  according  to  the  world's  judgment  there  was  nothing  sinful  in  all 
this ;  his  riches  were  fairly  got,t  and  this  makes  the  example  the  better 
to  suit  the  present  occasion.  Nor  yet  was  there  any  thing  which  the 
world  condemns  in  the  plans  which  he  laid  out  for  his  future  enjoyment, 
in  the  decent  Epicureanism  which  he  meditated  ;  '•'•  I  will  say  to  my  soul, 
Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  iqyfor  many  years;  take  thine  ease,  eat, 
drink,  and  be  merry."  Having  now  at  last,  as  he  imagines,  secured  him- 
self against  every  thing  that  could  disturb  his  felicity,  he  determines  to 
rest  from  his  labors,  to  enjoy  that  ease  and  quiet  from  which  hitherto 
the  anxious  acquisition  of  wealth  had  hindered  him  ;  like  the  rich  man 
in  another  parable,  to  fare  sumptuously  every  day.  His  plans  of  felicity, 
it  may  be  observed,  rise  no  higher  than  to  this  satisfying  of  the  flesh,  so 
that  there  is  an  irony  as  melancholy  as  it  is  profound  in  making  him 
address  this  speech,  not  to  his  body,  but  to  his  soul — to  that  soul,  which 

*  Etiarr.  in  Ps.  xlviii.  9.     Cf.  Etiarr.  in  Ps.  xxxviii.  6. 

t  Augustine  (Srnii.  178,  c.  2):  Nou  limito  peiturbato,  non  spoliato  paupere,  non 
circumvento  simplice. 


276  THE  RICH  FOOL. 

though  thus  capable  of  being  dragged  down  into  the  basest  service  of  the 
flesh,  imbodied  and  imbruted,  was  also  capable  of  being  informed  by  the 
Divine  Spirit,  and  of  knowing  and  loving  and  glorifying  Grod. 

He  expects  he  shall  thus  nourish  his  soul  '"for  mamj  years''''  (see 
Sirac.  v.  1),  he  boasts  not  merely  of  to-morrow,  but  of  many  years  to 
come  :  he  expects,  as  Job  did  once,  to  multiply  his  days  as  the  sand  :  his 
felicity  shall  not  soon  come  to  an  end,  but  to-morrow  shall  be  as  to-day, 
and  much  more  abundant.*  Compare  with  all  this  the  words  of  the  son 
of  Sirach  (xi.  18,  19),  forming  as  they  do  a  remarkable  parallel:  "There 
is  that  waxeth  rich  by  his  weariness  and  pinching,  and  this  is  the  portion 
of  his  reward  :  whereas  he  saith,  I  have  found  rest,  and  now  will  eat  con- 
tinually of  my  goods  ;  and  yet  he  knoweth  not  what  time  shall  come  upon 
him.  and  that  he  must  leave  those  things  to  others  and  die."  Therefore 
deserves  he  the  appellation  of  fool  which  immediately  after  is  given  him; 
'''■But  God  said  unto  him^  Tltoa fool,  this  night  thy  soul  shall  he  required 
of  t}i£e?''  *'  Thou fooV''\ — this  ftle  is  opposed  to  the  opinion  of  his  own 
prudence  and  foresight  which  he  entertained, — "  tJds  night^^  to  the  many 
years  that  he  promised  to  himself, — and  that  '■'•  soid^^  which  he  purposed 
to  nourish  and  make  fat,  it  is  declared  shall  be  inexorably  " required" 
and  painfully  rendered  up.|  There  is  no  need  to  inquire  here,  as  has 
been  sometimes  done,  in  what  way  Grod  spoke  to  the  man, — whether  by 
a  sudden  presentiment  of  approaching  death,  by  some  strong  alarm  of 
conscience,  by  some  mortal  sickness  at  this  instant  falling  upon  him,  or 
by  what  other  means.  We  are  not  to  understand  that  in  any  of  these 
ways  God  spake  to  him.  It  was  not  with  him  as  with  the  Babylonian 
king,  while  the  word  was  in  whose  mouth  there  fell  a  voice  from  heaven 


*  Tertullian :  Provenientibus  fructibus  ampliationem  horreorum,  et  longae 
BBCuritatis  spatia  cogitavit. 

t  See  a  striking  Epistle  (the  101st)  of  Seneca,  on  the  sudden  death  of  a  rich 
acquaintance,  where,  among  other  tilings,  he  says :  Qu&.m  stultuni  est  aetatem  dis- 
ponere !  ne  crastino  quidem  dominaraur.  0  quanta  dementia  est,  spes  longas 
inchoantium.  Emam,  aedificabo.  credam,  exigam,  honores  geram;  turn  demum 
lassam  et  plcnam  senectutem  in  otium  reforam.  See.  too,  more  than  one  of  the 
Greek  Epigrams  expressing  the  same  truth,  that  with  all  his  heaping  a  man  is  not 
able  C't'Tjs  (rcopeucrai  /ue'rpa  -wepicrffSTepa  and  this  surely  is  what  the  Lord  intends  to 
affirm.  Matt.  vi.  27, — that  no  one  can  add  to  his  term  of  life  (^Aikio),  for  while 
many  would  fain  so  add  to  their  length  of  life,  who  ever  wanted  to  add  to  his 
stature  1  and  it  is  not  merely  a  great  addition,  such  as  a  cubit,  which  he  could  not 
make,  but  the  smallest,  not  even  an  inch,  which  would  naturally  be  the  thing  ex- 
pressed, if  that  were  the  meaning. 

:j:  Vitringa  {Erklar.  d.  Par  ah.,  p.  781)  makes  here  an  ingenious  reference  to 
1  Sam.  XXV.  25,  and  observes  that  this  rich  fool  is  the  Nabal  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment: "As  his  name  is,  so  is  he:  Nabal  is  his  name,  and  folly  is  with  him." 
Compare  ver.  36-38  then  with  this  ver.  20  of  our  parable. 


THE  RICH  FOOL.  277 

telling  him  that  the  kingdom  was  departed  from  him.  (Dan.  iv.  31.) 
Here  we  are  to  suppose  nothing  of  the  kind,  but  more  awful  still,  that 
while  those  secure  deliberations  which  have  been  just  described  were 
going  on  in  the  thoughts  of  the  man.  this  sentence  was  being  determined 
in  the  counsels  of  God  :*  for  it  is  thus  that  tho  Lord  in  heaven  derides 
the  counsels  of  sinners,  seeing  them  in  their  vanity  and  folly,  and  know- 
ing how  soon  he  will  bring  them  to  nothing.f  Not  as  yet  was  there  any 
direct  communication  between  God  and  the  man's  soul — any  message  or 
warning  concerning  the  near  impending  judgment,  but  even  at  the  very 
moment  when  God  was  pronouncing  the  decree  that  the  thread  of  his  life 
should  in  a  few  moments  be  cut  in  twain,  he  was  promising  himself  as 
confidently  as  ever  the  long  spaces  of  an  uninterrupted  security. 

There  is  a  force  in  the  words,  "  shall  be  required  of  tliee^'  (with  which 
we  may  compare  Wisd.  xv.  8,  "  His  life  which  was  lent  him  shall  be 
demanded,")  a  force  which  Theophylact  well  brings  out:  "For  like  piti- 
less exactors  of  tribute,  terrible  angels  shall  require  thy  soul  from  thee 
unwilling,  and  through  love  of  life  resisting.  For  from  the  righteous  his 
soul  is  not  required^  but  he  commits  it  to  God  and  the  Father  of  spirits, 
pleased  and  rejoicing,  nor  finds  it  hard  to  lay  it  down,  for  the  body  lies 
upon  it  as  a  light  burden.  But  the  sinner  who  has  enfleshed  his  soul, 
and  embodied  it,  and  made  it  earthy,  has  prepared  to  render  its  divulsion 
from  the  body  most  hard  :  wherefore  it  is  said  to  he  required  of  him,  as 
a  disobedient  debtor,  that;  is  delivered  to  pitiless  exactors."^  For  he  is 
not  as  a  ship,  which  has  been  long  waiting  in  harbor,  and  joyfully  when 
the  signal  is  given  lifts  its  anchor,  and  makes  sail  for  the  harbor  of  eter- 
nity, but  like  the  ship  which  by  some  fierce  wind  is  dragged  from  its 
moorings,  and  driven  furiously  to  perish  on  the  rocks.  The  mere  world- 
ling is  torn  from  the  world  which  is  the  only  sphere  of  delight  which  he 
knows,  as  the  fabled  mandrake  was  torn  from  the  earth,  shrieking  and 
with  bleeding  roots. ^  "  Then  ichose  shall  those  things  be  ichich  thou  host 
provided  V  Solomon  long  before  had  noted  this  as  constituting  part  of 
the  vanity  of  wealth,  and  the  eager  pursuit  after  wealth,  namely,  the  un- 
certainty to  whom  after  death  it  would  come,  and  of  the  use  which  the 
heir  would  make  of  it  (Eccles.  ii.  18,  19),  "Yea,  I  hated  all  my  labor 

*  God  .said  to  him  this,  in  the  words  of  Grotius,  Non  revclando  sed  dccerncndo. 

t  Tliis  will  come  out  yet  more  .strongly  if  with  the  best  manuscripts  we  re:id  not 
the  vocative  6.<ppov  but  tho  nominative  &(ppoiv.  Fool !     It  is  so  in  Lacliniann's  text. 

■\.  So  on  the  other  side,  the  Jewish  doctors  taught  that  the  angel  Gabriel  drew 
gently  out  with  a  kiss,  the  souls  of  the  righteous  from  their  mouths;  to  something 
of  which  kind,  the  phrase  so  often  used  to  express  the  peaceful  departure  of  the- 
saints.  In  osculo  Domini  obdorniivit.  must  allude. 

()  See  Luchn's  inimitable  dialogue.  Um sixteenth  {Cafaplus),  for  a  commentary, 


ii 


in  its  way,  on  tliese  words  "shall  be  reqiill^"  as  well  as  on  those  which  next  follow 


278  THE  RICH  FOOL. 

which  I  had  taken  under  the  sun,  because  I  should  leave  it  to  the  man 
that  shall  be  after  me :  and  who  knoweth  whether  he  shall  be  a  wise  man 
or  a  fool  ?"  Compare  Ps.  xxxix.  6,  "  He  heapeth  up  riches,  and  know- 
eth not  who  shall  gather  them."  (Eccles.  ii.  26 ;  Ps.  xlix.  6-20 ;  Job. 
xxvii.  16,  17.)* 

"  So  is  he  that  laycth  ujj  treasure  fm-  himself,  and  is  not  rich  toivard 
God^^  or,  does  not  enrich  himself  toward  God — for  the  two  clauses  of 
the  verse  are  parallel,  and  in  the  second  not  merely  a  state  or  condition, 
the  being  rich,  but  as  in  the  first,  an  effort  and  endeavor,  the  inaking 
oneself  rich,  though  in  a  manner  altogether  different,  is  assumed.  Self 
and  God  are  here  contemplated  as  the  two  poles  between  which  the  soul 
is  placed,  for  one  or  other  of  which  it  must  determine,  and  then  make 
that  one  the  end  of  all  its  aims  and  efforts.  If  for  the  first,  then  the  man 
"  layeth  iq)  treasure  for  himself^''  and  what  the  end  of  this  is,  we  have 
seen  :  the  man  and  his  treasure,  so  far  at  least  as  it  is  his  treasure, 
come  to  nothing  together.  He  has  linked  himself  to  the  perishable  in 
his  inmost  being,  and  he  must  perish  with  it.  His  very  enriching  of 
himself  outwardly,  while  that  is  made  the  object  of  his  being,  is  an 
impoverishing  of  himself  inwardly,  that  is,  toward  God  and  in  those 
which  are  the  true  riches  ;  for  there  is  a  continual  draining  off  to 
worldly  objects,  of  those  affections  which  were  given  him  that  they 
might  find  their  satisfying  object  in  God ;  where  his  treasure  is,  there 
his  heart  is  also.  Now  the  Scripture  ever  considers  the  heart  as  that 
which  constitutes  a  man  truly  rich  or  poor.  He  that  has  no  love  of 
God,  no  large  spiritual  affections,  no  share  in  the  unsearchable  riches 
of  Christ,  no  sympathies  with  his  brethren,  is  in  fact,  "  wretched  and 
miserable,  and  poor  and  blind,  and  naked,"  and  shall  one  day  find  out 
that  he  is  so,  however  now  he  may  say,  "  I  am  rich  and  increased  with 
goods,  and  have  need  of  nothing :"  he  is  poor  towards  God,  he  has 
nothing  with  God ;  he  has  laid  up  in  store  no  good  foundation  against 
the  time  to  come.  On  the  other  hand,  he  only  is  truly  rich,  who  is 
rich  toward  God — who  is  rich  in  God — who  has  made  the  eternal  and 
the  unchangeable  the  object  of  his  desires  and  his  efforts.  He  in  God 
possesses  all  things,  though  in  this  world  he  were  a  beggar,  and  for 
him  to  die  will  not  be  to  quit,  but  to  go  to,  his  riches,  f 

*  So  the  Greek  epigrammatist  on  the  painful  gatherer  of  wealth  for  others : 
OuTos  oTToia  ^iXiaaa  iroXvTpfiToi.s  ivl  (rifi0\ois 

t  I  cannot  give  better  what  seems  to  me  the  true  view  of  the  passage  than  in 
Cypria'!'  ■  words  addressed  to  the  covetous  (De  Operc  et  Eleem.) :  Obsederunt  ani- 
mum  tuum  storilitatis  tenebrje,  et  recedente  indc  lumine  veritatis,  carnalc  pectus 
alta  et  profunda  avaritis  caligo  cjEcaTdjk  pecuniae  tu£e  captivus  et  servus  es,  .  . 


THE  RICH  FOOL.  279 

Our  Lord  having  thus  warned  his  hearers  against  covetousness,  and 
knowing  how  often  it  springs  from  a  distrust  in  God's  providential  care, 
goes  on  to  teach  them  where  they  may  find  that  whicli  shall  be  the  best 
preservative  against  all  such  over  anxious  thoughts  for  the  future,  name- 
ly, in  the  assurance  of  the  love  and  care  of  a  heavenly  Father  (ver.  22- 
30),  so  that  the  connection  is  as  close  as  it  is  beautiful,  between  this 
parable  and  the  instructions  which  immediately  follow.  There  is  also, 
perhaps,  in  the  words  of  ver.  24  a  distinct  reminiscence  of  the  parable. 

servas  pccuniam,  qujc  te  servata  non  servat,  patrimoninm  cumulas,  quod  te  pon- 
dere  sue  graviiis  oncrat:  nee  nieministi  quid  Deus  respondorit  diviti  cxuberantium 
fructuum  copiam  stulta.  cxultatione  jactanti  .  .  .  Quid  divitiis  tuis  solus  hicubas  1 
qui  in  poenam  tuam  patrimonii  tui  pondus  exaggeras;  id  quo  locupktior  sceculo 
fueris,  pauperior  Deojias?    See  Suicer's  Thes.  a.  v.  TrAourew. 


XX. 

THE    BARREN   FIG-TREE. 

Luke  xiii.  6-9. 

The  eagerness  of  men  to  be  the  first  narrators  of  evil  tidings,  an 
eagerness  which  can  only  spring  from  a  certain  secret  pleasure  in 
them,*  though  that  be  most  often  unacknowledged  even  to  themselves, 
was  perhaps  what  moved  some  of  those  present  to  tell  the  Lord  of  a  new 
outrage  which  Pilate  had  committed.  These  persons  understood  rightly 
that  he  was  speaking,  in  the  words  which  conclude  the  last  chapter,  of 
the  severe  judgments  which  men  bring  upon  themselves  through  their 
sins :  but,  as  is  generally  the  manner  of  men,  instead  of  applying  these 
words  to  their  own  consciences,  they  made  application  of  them  only  to 
others.  Of  the  outrage  itself, — which  however  agrees  well  with  the 
quarrel  between  Herod  and  Pilate  (Luke  xxiii.  12),  and  might  have  been 
either  its  cause  or  its  consequence, — there  is  no  historical  notice.  For 
it  is  little  probable  that  the  scattering  or  slaying  by  Pilate  of  some 
fanatical  Samaritan  insurgents,  recorded  by  Josephus,  which  is  here  ad- 
duced by  some  of  the  early  commentators,  is  the  event  referred  to ;  and 
it  is  something  too  bold  a  change,  as  Lightfoot  observes,  to  make  rebel- 
ling Samaritans  of  these  sacrificuig  Galila;ans.  Among  the  number- 
less atrocities  with  which  the  Romans  exhausted  the  patience  of  the 
Jewish  nation,  and  at  length  drove  it  into  open  resistance,  it  is  nothing 
strange  that  this,  which  must  have  been  but  a  drop  of  water  in  the  sea, 
should  have  remained  unrecorded.  It  is  no  more  strange  than  that  the 
slaughter  of  a  few  infants  in  a  small  country  town  like  Bethlehem  should 
find  no  place  in  profane  history.  The  troublesome  insurrectionary  cha- 
racter for  which  the  Gralilajans  were  noted,!  may  have  been  the  motive 

*  Two  languages  at  least,  bear  melancholy  witness  to  the  existence  of  such  a 
feeling,  having  a  word  to  express  this  joy  at  calamities : — the  German,  Schaden- 
freude ;  and  the  Greek.  eirtxa-ipeKaKla. 

•f  The  Galil.'eans  arc  described  by  Josephns  as  industrious  and  brave ;  but, 
though  not  in  the  least  considered  heretical  like  the  Samaritans,  by  the  other 


THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE.  281 

or  excuse  for  this  outrage,  which  must  have  been  perpetrated  at  Jerusa- 
lem where  alone  sacrifices  were  ofi"ered.  There  is  something  significant 
in  the  language  in  which  the  slaughter  of  these  Galihcans  is  narrated, 
— "whose  blood  Pilate  had  mingled  with  their  sacrifices."  It  is  proba- 
ble from  our  Lord's  reply,  that  the  narrators  urged  this  circumstance, 
or  at  least  would  have  had  it  understood,  as  a  peculiar  evidence  of  the 
anger  of  God  against  the  sufferers.  If  men  might  have  been  safe  any- 
where or  at  any  time,  it  would  have  been  at  the  altar  of  God,  and  while 
in  the  act  of  oflfering  sacrifices  unto  him.  But  here,  they  probably 
meant  to  infer,  just  as  Job's  friends  inferred  some  great  guilt  on  his  part 
from  the  greatness  of  his  calamities,  there  must  liave  been  some  hidden 
enormous  guilt,  which  rendered  the  very  sacrifices  of  these  men  to  be 
sin, — not  a  propitiation  of  God,  but  a  provocation, — so  that  they  them- 
selves became  piacular  expiations,  their  blood  mingling  with,  and  itself 
becoming  part  of,  the  sacrifices  whicli  they  offered. 

But  whether  exactly  this  was  what  they  meant  or  not.  the  Lord  at  once 
laid  bare  the  evil  in  their  hearts,  rebuking  the  cruel  judgments  which  they 
certainly  had  formed  concerning  those  tliat  perished  ;  •'  Suppose  ye  that 
these  Galihcans  were  sinners  above  all  tlie  Galilacans,  because  they  suffered 
such  things?"  He  does  not  deny  that  they  were  sinners,  justly  obnoxious 
to  this  or  any  other  severest  visitation  from  God,  but  he  does  deny  that 
their  calamity  marked  them  out  as  sinners  above  all  oilier  of  tlieir  fellow- 
countrymen;  and  then  he  leads  his  hearers,  as  was  ever  his  manner  (see 
Luke  xiii.  23 ;  John  xxi.  22),  to  take  their  eyes  off  from  others,  and  to  fix 
them  upon  themselves — "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 
Here,  in  these  words,  we  are  exactly  taught  how  riglitly  to  use  the  ca- 
lamities which  befall  others;  what  their  significance  is,  as  regards  our- 
selves— that  they  are  loud  calls  to  an  earnest  repentance.  For  instead 
of  exalting  ourselves  above  and  against  the  sufi'erers,  as  though  we  were 
more  righteous  than  they,  and  on  this  account  exempt  from  the  like  tri- 
bulations, we  are  on  the  contrary  to  recognize  that  whatever  befalls  an- 
other, might  justly  have  befallen  ourselves.  So  it  will  be  ever  felt  by 
all  who.  not  altogether  ignorant  of  their  own  sinfulness,  and  of  the  holi- 
ness of  God,  apply  any  right  measure  to  their  own  actual  transgressions 

Jews,  they  were  yet  held  in  a  certain  degree  of  contempt  by  them,  partly  because 
their  blood  was  considered  less  puro,  many  heathens  being  mingled  among  them, 
whence  their  country  is  called  •'Galilee  of  the  Gentiles"  (Matt.  iv.  15;  see  1  Mace. 
i.  15.  VaXiXfAa  a\\o(pu\wt'). — and  i)artly  because  their  ftiith  was  considered  by  the 
Jewish  doctors  as  less  strictly  orthodox  (John  vii.  52;  see  i.  46  ;  Acts  ii.  7),  they 
in  many  observances  departing  from  the  Jewish  tradition  They  spoke  a  bad 
dialect  (Matt.  xxvi.  73).  characterized  particularly  by  a  confnsion  of  giUturals.  and 
a  broad  Syriac  i)ronunciation,  so  as  to  give  occasion  to  the  strangest  mistakes,  and 
often  to  be  unintelligible  to  a  native  of  Jerusalem.  (See  Lightfoot's  Charograpk. 
Cent.,  c.  86,  87. 


282  THE  BARREN"  FIG-TREE. 

against  the  law  of  God.  Moreover,  when  we  have  learned  to  see  in 
ourselves  the  bitter  root  of  sin,  we  shall  learn  to  acknowledge  that  what- 
ever deadly  fruit  it  bears  in  another,  it  might  have  borne  the  same  or 
worse,  under  like  circumstances,  in  ourselves.  But  when  this  is  felt,  it 
will  be  no  longer  possible  to  triumph  over  the  doom  of  any  sinner.  The 
thoughts  of  a  man  thus  taught  to  know  himself  will  fall  back  on  his  own 
life  and  on  his  own  heart.  He  will  see  in  the  chastisement  which  has 
overtaken  another,  the  image  of  the  chastisement  which  might  justly 
have  overtaken  himself;  he  will  see  in  it  a  message  of  warning  addressed 
to  himself  For  he  will  not  deny,  as  neither  does  our  Lord  here  deny, 
the  intimate  connection  between  sin  and  suffering,  but  it  is  the  sin  of 
the  race  which  is  linked  with  the  suffering  of  the  race — not,  of  necessity 
at  least,  the  sin  of  the  individual  with  his  particular  suffering.*  So 
far  from  denying  this  connection,  the  more  the  Christian  conscience  is 
developed  in  him,  the  more  freely  he  will  acknowledge  it,  the  more  close 
and  intimate  will  it  appear.  At  every  new  instance  of  moral  and  phy- 
sical evil  which  he  encounters  in  a  world  which  has  departed  from  Grod, 
he  will  anew  justify  Grod  as  the  Author  of  all  good,  even  when  he  proves 
himself  negatively  such,  in  the  misery  of  man  as  he  is  a  sinful  creature 
separated  from  his  God,  as  well  as  positively  in  the  blessedness  of  man 
as  he  is  redeemed  and  re-united  with  himself 

Our  blessed  Lord,  to  set  the  truth  he  would  fain  enforce  yet  more 
plainly  before  his  hearers,  himself  brings  forward  another  instance  of  a 


*  Strauss  {Leben  Jcsii,  v.  2,  pp.  84-90)  terms  the  faith  in  a  connection  between 
sin  and  suffering,  a  "  vulgar  Hebrew  notion,"  from  which  this  passage  might  at 
first  sight  appear  to  clear  the  Lord,  but  which  such  other  passages  as  Matt.  ix.  2, 
John  V.  14,  lay  again  at  his  door,  or  that  of  his  historians  ;  and  says  that  this  pas- 
sage and  those  are  in  contradiction  to  one  another,  and  cannot  be  reconciled.  He 
will  not  see,  I  know  not  whether  in  feigned  or  real  blindness,  that  what  Christ  con- 
demns is  this,  tlie  affirming  that  any  man's  particular  calamity  is  the  consequence 
of  his  particular  sin.  He  affirms,  all  Scripture  affirms,  that  the  sum  total  of  the 
calamity  which  oppresses  the  human  race  is  the  consequence  of  the  sum  total  of 
its  sin  ;  nor  does  he  deny  the  relation  in  which  a  man's  actual  sins  may  stand  to 
Ij^s  sufferings.  What  he  does  deny  is  man's  power  to  trace  the  connection,  and 
therefore  his  right  in  any  particular  case,  to  assert  such  connection.  And  this, 
instead  of  being  a  "  vulgar  Hebrew  notion,"  is  one  of  the  most  deeply  rooted  con- 
victions in  the  universal  human  heart,  witnessed  for  by  the  proverbs  of  all  nations, 
inextricably  entwined  in  all  language — a  truth  which  men  may  forget  or  deny  in 
their  prosperity,  but  which  in  the  hour  of  calamity  they  are  compelled  to  acknow- 
ledge— when  this  confession  is  ever  extorted  from  them.  Our  sin  hath  found  us 
out.  Thus  was  it  with  Joseph's  brethren ;  in  the  hour  of  their  own  afflictions, 
they  remembered  their  own  sins:  "  We  are  verily  guilty  concerning  our  brother, 
....  therefore  is  this  distress  come  upon  us."  (Gen.  xlii.  21 ;  cf.  1  Kin.  xvii.  18  ; 
Judg.  i.  7  ;  Acts  xxviii.  4.)  There  are  some  excellent  observations  upon  this  sub- 
ject in  Hengstenberg's  Authentic  d.  Pentateuches,  v.  2,  p.  577,  seq. 


THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE.  283 

swift  destruction  overtaking  many  persons  at  once : — "  Those  eighteen 
on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam*  fell  and  slew  them,  think  ye  that  they 
were  sinners  above  all  men  that  dwelt  in  Jerusalem?"  Neither  in  this 
case  were  uncharitable  judgments  to  find  place,  as  though  these  were 
sinners  above  all  men.  as  though  they  owed  a  larger  debtf  to  God  than 
others.  But  while  none  were  to  attribute  a  preponderance  of  guilt  to 
those  who  perished,  yet  here  also,  in  these  accidents,  in  this  disharmony 
of  outward  nature,  all  were  to  recognize  a  call  to  repentance,  partly  as 
these  swift  calamities  should  convince  them  of  the  uncertain  tenure  of 
life,  and  how  soon  therefore  the  day  of  grace  might  be  closed  for  them ; 
but  chiefly  as  awakening  in  them  a  sense  of  consciousness  of  sin.  For 
the  discords  of  outward  nature,  storms  and  floods,  earthquakes  and  pes- 
tilences, and  so  too  all  disasters  such  as  that  one  here  referred  to,  are 
parts  of  that  curse,  that  subjection  of  the  whole  creation  to  vanity,  con- 
sequent on  the  sin  of  man.  All  were  to  speak  to  sinners  in  the  same 
warning  language, — "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 
There  is  a  force  in  the  original  word  ((acravT-coy),  which  our  English  '-like- 
wise," from  its  frequent  lax  usage  as  a  synonyme  for  "  as  well,"  fails 
to  give.  The  threat  is,  that  they  shall  literally  in  like  ivise  perish,  in  a 
manner  similar  to  that  in  which  these  perished :  for,  as  it  has  often  been 
observed,  the  resemblance  is  more  than  accidental  between  these  two 
calamities  here  adduced,  and  the  ultimate  destruction  which  did  over- 
take the  rebellious  Jews,  those  who  refused  to  obey  the  Lord's  bidding, 
and  to  repent.  As  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell  and  crushed  eighteen  of  the 
dwellers  at  Jerusalem,  exactly  so  multitudes  of  its  inhabitants  were 
crushed  beneath  the  ruins  of  their  temple  and  their  city ;  and  during 
the  last  siege  and  assault  of  that  city,  there  were  numbers  also,  who 
were  pierced  through  by  the  Roman  darts  in  the  courts  of  the  temple, 
in  the  very  act  of  preparing  their  sacrifices,  so  that  literally  their  blood, 
like  that  of  these  Galilaeans,  was  mingled  with  their  sacrifices,  one  blood 
with  another. 

These  two  calamities  then  are  adduced  as  slight  foretastes  of  the 
doom  prepared  for  the  whole  rebellious  nation.  If  the  warning  was 
taken,  if  they  would  even  now  bring  forth  fruit  meet  for  repentance,  thai? 

*  This  tower  was,  from  its  name,  probably  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  foimtain  of  Siloam,  tbougli  Josepluis  {Bell.  Jad.,  6.  7,  2)  would  seem  to  distin- 
guish a  region  of  Siloam  from  the  fountain  bearing  that  name.  Tliough  the 
notices  of  Siloam  are  so  numerous,  both  in  the  Scriptures  and  in  the  Jewish 
historian,  modern  topographers  are  altogether  at  issue  concerning  its  true  posi- 
tion. 

t  Literally,  ''  Think  ye  they  were  debtors  above  all  men  1"  a  remarkable  phrase, 
selected  for  its  peculiar  fitness  here,  and  with  reference  no  doubt  to  chapter  xii. 
68,  69.     (Cf.  Matt.  v.  25 ;  vi.  12  ;  xviii.  24 ;  Luke  vii.  41.) 


284  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE. 

doom  might  still  be  averted :  but  if  not,  if  they  refused  to  return,  then 
these  calamities  would  in  the  end  be  headed  up  by  that  one  great  and 
final  catastrophe,  which  would  leave  no  room  for  repentance.  In  the 
meanwhile  they  were  to  see  in  the  fact  that  as  yet  the  strokes  descended 
upon  them  for  warning,  and  not  the  stroke  for  excision,  a  proof  of  the 
long-suffering  of  God,  not  willing  that  any  should  perish  :  as  Olshausen 
observes, — "  the  discourse  of  Jesus,  severe  and  full  of  rebuke,  is  closed 
by  a  parable,  in  which  the  merciful  Son  of  man  again  brings  the  side  of 
grace  prominently  forward.  He  appears  as  the  Intercessor  for  men  before 
the  righteousness  of  the  heavenly  Father,  as  he  who  obtains  for  them 
space  for  repentance.  This  idea  of  the  deferring  of  the  judgment  of 
God,  so  to  leave  men  opportunity  to  turn,  runs  through  all  the  Holy 
Scripture ;  before  the  deluge,  a  period  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  years 
was  fixed  (Gen.  vi.  3) ;  Abraham  prayed  for  Sodom  (Gen.  xviii.  24) ;  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  did  not  follow  till  forty  years  after  the  a.scension 
of  the  Lord ;  and  the  coming  again  of  Christ  is  put  off"  though  the 
patience  of  God  (2  Pet.  iii.  9)." 

This  parable  then  is  at  once  concerning  the  long-suffering  and  the 
severity  of  God;  it  begins  thus:  "J.  certain  man  had  a  fig-tree  j}la7ited 
in  his  vineyard^  The  vineyard  here  must  be  the  world,  and  not.  as  in 
the  parable  of  the  Wicked  Husbandmen,  the  kingdom  of  God ;  in  the 
midst  of  the  world  the  Jewish  people  were  set  and  appointed  that  they 
should  bear  much  fruit,  that  they  should  bring  much  glory  to  God. 
(Deut.  iv.  6.)  Yet  though  the  parable  was  directly  pointed  at  them,  it 
is  also  of  universal  application  ;  for  as  Israel  according  to  the  flesh  was 
the  representative  of  all  and  of  each,  who  in  after  times  should  be  elected 
out  of  the  world  to  the  privileges  of  a  nearer  knowledge  of  God,  so  is 
a  warning  herein  contained  for  the  Gentile  Church  and  for  CAery  indi- 
vidual soul.*  Indeed  there  is  personal  application  made  of  the  image 
which  supplies  the  groundwork  of  the  parable,  by  the  Baptist  (Matt.  iii. 
10),  and  of  an  image  very  nearly  the  same  by  Christ  himself  (John  xv. 
2.) — The  possessor  of  the  fig-tree  "  came  and  sought  fruit  thcreonP 
What  is  here  parabolically  related  was  on  another  occasion  typically 
done  in  a  kind  of  ser^no  rcahs  by  the  Saviour ;  "  seeing  a  fig-tree  afar 
off,  having  leaves,  he  came,  if  haply  he  'might  find  any  thing  thereon." 
(Mark  xi.  13.)     But  he  then,  as  the  master  of  the  vineyard  now,  '••fcnind 


*  Such  application  of  it  Ambrose  makes  {Exp.  in  L/iic,  1.  7:  c.  171)  :  Quod  de 
Judaiis  dictum,  omnibus  cavendum  arbitror.  et  nobis  raaximfe ;  ne  fecundum 
Ecclesiaj  locum  vacui  mentis  occupemus:  qui  quasi  melogranatabenedicti.  fvuctus 
ferre  debemus  internos,  fructus  pudoris.  fructus  conjunctionis,  fructu.s  mutiue  cari- 
atis  et  amoris,  sub  uno  utero  Ecclesias  matris  inclusi :  no  aura  noceat,  ne  gi'ando 
iecutiat,  ne  sestus  cupiditatis  exurat,  ne  humoris  imber  elidat. 


THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE.  285 

none.''^  Long  since  tlie  prophets  had  upbraided  their  people,  and  laid 
this  charge  against  them,  that  though  ordained  to  bring  forth  much  fruit 
to  the  glory  of  God,  they  had  fallen  from  their  high  calling,  and  brought 
forth  either  no  fruit  or  bitter  fruit.  (Isai.  v.  2.  7 ;  Jer.  xv..  and,  if  our 
version  is  to  stand,  Hos.  xy  1.) 

There  is  a  wonderful  significance  in  the  simple  image  running  through 
the  whole  of  Scripture,  according  to  which  men  are  compared  to  trees, 
and  their  work  to  fruit* — the  fruit  being  the  organic  produce  and  evi- 
dence of  the  inner  life,  not  something  arbitrarily  attached  or  fastened  on 
from  without.  (Ps.  i.  3 ;  Jer.  xvii.  8 ;  John  xv.  2,  4,  5 ;  Rom.  vii.  4.) 
It  is  a  compari.son  which  helps  greatly  to  set  forth  the  true  relation  be- 
tween fiiith  and  works,  which  relation  is,  in  fact,  just  as  plainly  declared 
by  our  Lord,  when  he  says,  "A  good  tree  bringeth  not  forth  corrupt 
fruit,  neither  doth  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit"  (Luke  vi.  43), 
as  by  St.  Paul  in  any  of  hi^  Epistles.  Tliere  are  three  kinds  of  works 
spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament,  which  may  all  be  illustrated  from  this 
image  :  first,  good  works,  when  the  tree,  being  made  good,  bears  fruit  of 
the  same  character  ;t.  then  cMid  works.J  such  as  have  a  fair  outward 
appearance,  but  are  not  the  living  outgrowth  of  the  renewed  man — fruit, 
as  it  were  attached  and  fastened  on  from  without,  alms  given  that  they 
may  be  gloried  in,  prayers  made  that  they  may  be  seen,  works  such  as 
were  most  of  those  of  the  Pharisees  :  and  lastl3\  hoicked  works,^  when  the 
corrupt  tree  bears  fruit  manifestly  of  its  own  kind.  Here  it  is,  of  course, 
those  good  fruits  which  the  tree  is  accused  of  not  bearing :  both  the 
other  kinds  of  fruit  the  Jewish  nation  abundantly  bore. 

For  •■  tlhrec  years"  the  master  of  the  vineyard  complains  that  he  had 
come  seeking  fruit,  and  in  vain.  Of  these  '■•tJircc  ycars^''  very  many 
explanations  have  been  offered.  Augustine  understands  by  them  the 
times  of  tlie  natural  law, — of  the  written  law, — and  now,  at  last,  of 
grace.  Theophylact :  "  Christ  came  thrice,  b\'  Moses,  by  the  prophets, 
and  thirdly,  in  his  own  person ;"  or,  when  application  of  th^parable  is 


*  BfiNGKL  mi  Mall.  vii.  16:  Frnctus  est,  quod  homo,  tanquara  arbor,  ex  boni 
vel  mala  indole  sua,  omnes  interiores  facultatcs  permeante,  scaturit.  Doctrina 
undrcuii(|uc  compilata  et  linguaj  alligata  uon  est  fructus  :  sed  id  crane  quod  doctor 
aliquis  ex  sue  corde  prorait  et  profert,  in  scrraono  et  actione,  ceu  quiddam  ex  in- 
timi  .sua  emistitutione  fluens,  ut  lac  quod  mater  praibet  ex  so.  See  an  admirable 
sermon  liy  Augustine  (Scrm.  72)  on  the  tree  and  its  fruits,  as  setting  forth  the 
relation  between  a  man  and  his  works. 

t  'Y.frya  &(o\,  (John  vi.  28).  KoAa  e^o  (Tit  ii.  7).  070^0  ipya  (1  Tim  ii.  10),  i^a. 
viffTeus  '  1  Thcs.s.  j.  8). 

%  "Zpya  vfKpd  db'b.  ix.  14),  and  .sometimes  tpya  vSfiov  (Gal.  ii.  16). 

()  "Epya  noirf]pd  (1  John  iii.  12).  (pya  tov  ffK6Tous  (Roui.  xiii.  12),  t^s  crapKSs  (Gal. 
T.  19). 


286  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE. 

made  to  the  individual, — in  childhood,  in  manhood,  in  old  age.  Olshau- 
sen  thinks  that  they  may  refer  to  the  three  years  of  the  Lord's  open 
ministry  upon  earth  ;  but  Grotius  had  already  observed  against  this 
view,  that  if  the  three  years  are  chronological,  the  one  year  more,  which 
at  the  intercession  of  the  dresser  of  the  vineyard  is  granted  to  the  tree, 
ought  certainly  to  be  chronological  also,  whereas  not  one,  but  forty  years 
of  grace  were  allowed  to  the  Jews,  before  their  final  destruction. — "  Cut 
it  down''''  (see  Isai.  v.  5,  6;  Matt.  vii.  19;  Luke  xix.  41-44),  '■'•why* 
cumberethit  the  grouiulV  St.  Basil  beautifully  observes  the  love  which 
breathes  even  in  the  threatenings  of  Grod.  "  This,"  he  says,  "  is  peculiar 
to  the  clemency  of  God  toward  men,  that  he  does  not  bring  in  punish- 
ment silently  or  secretly ;  but  by  his  threatenings  first  proclaims  them 
to  be  at  hand,  thus  inviting  sinners  to  repentance."  There  is  a  blessed 
sense  in  which  that  word  of  the  Greek  proverb,  "  The  feet  of  the  avenging 
deities  ai-e  shod  with  wool,"  to  express  the  noiselessness  of  their  approach, 
is  not  true.  Before  the  hewing  down  begins,  the  axe  is  laid  at  the  root 
of  the  tree  (Matt.  iii.  10),  laid  there,  as  prompt  and  at  hatd  for  immedi- 
ate use,  though  as  yet  no  blow  has  been  struck ;  but  laid  there  also,  that 
if  possible,  this  sign  of  what  is  threatened  may  avert  the  actual  fulfil- 
ment of  the  threat.f     (2  Chron.  xxxiii.  10.)     The  "  cumbering ";{:  the 

*  "We  have  missed  the  "also"  here  (iyarl  Kal  ttjv  yriv  KarapyeT);  which  is 
really  the  kej'-word  of  the  sentence:  Wherefore  should  the  tree  stand,  when,  be- 
sides being  itself  barren,  it  also  injures  the  soil  in  which  it  is  set  1  The  Vulgate 
has  held  it  fast:  Ut  quid  etia?>i  terram  occupat?  and  in  De  Wette's  German  trans- 
lation :  Warum  macht  er  auch  noch  das  Land  unfruchtbar  1  Gregory  the  Great 
(^Hom.  81  in  Evang.)  shows  that  it  had  not  escaped  him:  Postquam  enim  se  per- 
didit,  quterendum  est  cur  et  alios  premat.  And  Bengel :  Non  modo  nil  prodest, 
sed  etiam  laticem  avertit,  quern  e  terrS,  suctur^  erant  vites,  et  soles  interpellat,  et 
epatium  occuiiat. 

t  Aiigu.stine:  Si  damnare  vellet,  t<aceret.  Nemo  volens  ferire  dicit.  Observa ; 
and  Chrysostom  has  the  same  thought  {De  Pmnit.  Horn.  7,  ad  finem) :  'Anei\el  tV 
Ti/jioiptav  'Iva  (pi/yce/xev  t^v  irdpav  ttjs  rt/xwplas  •  (poPe7  t^  ^iyf-  'Iva,  /xtj  KoKaari  T(ji  fpycp. 
We  have  a  parallel,  Heb.  vl.  7,  8.  The  earth  which  beareth  thorns  and  briers  is 
there  described  as  Kardpas  iyyvs,  but  though  thus  "  nigh  unto  cursing,"  the  curse 
has  not  lighted  on  it  yet ; — it  is  foreannounced,  that  so  it  may  not  arrive. 

ij:  The  word  is  not  altogether  adequate ;  nor  is  it  very  easy  to  see  what  induced 
to  its  selection.  It  first  appears  in  Tyndale's  translation.  In  the  Geneva,  "  Why 
keepeth  it  the  ground  barren  1"  takes  its  place,  but  it  reappears  in  the  authorized 
version.  Doubtless  the  verb,  to  comber  (cognate  with  the  German  kummern),  had 
a  stronger  and  more  extensive  sense  in  early  English  than  it  has  retained  in  later 
use,  but  mainly  the  sense  of  harassing  or  annoying.  Like  the  occupat  of  the  Vul- 
gate, which  is  evidently  too  weak,  it  fails  to  give  us  the  Karapy^l  {=apy6v,  or  aepy6v 
TToieT)  of  the  original.  Impedit,  wkich  appears  to  have  been  in  the  old  Itiilic.  is 
better,  for  the  tree  is  charged  not  merely  with  being  negatively,  but  positively 
evil;  it  marred  and  mischiefed  the  soil  beneath  and  around  it.  Gregory  the 
Groat :  Stat  desuper  arbor  infructuosa,  et  subtus  terra  sterilis  jacet.    InfructuossB 


THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE.  287 

ground  implies  something  more  than  that  it  occupied  the  place  which 
might  have  been  filled  by  another  and  a  fruit-bearing  tree ;  the  barren 
tree  injured  the  land,  spreading  injurious  shade,  and  drawing  off  to  itself 
the  fatness  and  nourishment  which  should  have  gone  to  the  trees  that 
would  have  made  a  return.  Thus,  like  this  fig-tree,  the  Jewish  Church 
not  merely  did  not  itself  bring  forth  fruits  of  righteousness,  but  it 
injured  the  ground  in  which  it  was  planted.  Through  them  the  name 
of  God  was  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles  (Rom.  ii.  24) ;  they  hindered 
the  spread  of  the  knowledge  of  God  among  other  nations,  tlirough  the 
mischievous  influences  of  their  pride  and  hypocrisy  (Matt,  xxiii.  13,  15) ; 
even  as  it  is  true  of  every  individual  sinner,  that  he  is  not  merely  unprofit- 
able to  God,  but  has  a  mischievous  influence  ;  by  his  evil  example,  by  his 
corrupt  maxims,  he  is  a  hindrance  and  a  stumbling-block  to  others  in  the 
way  of  their  attainment  of  salvation. 

The  dresser  of  the  vineyard,  who  pleads  for  the  tree,  and  would,  if  it 
might  be.  avert  its  doom,  saying,  "  Lord,  let  it  alone  this  year  also"  is 
manifestly  the  Son  of  God  himself,  the  Intercessor  for  men  (Job  xxxiii. 
23;  Zech.  i.  12;  Heb.  vii.  25);  yet  not  as  though  the  Father  and  the 
Son  had  different  minds  concerning  sinners, — as  though  the  counsels  of 
the  Father  were  wrath,  and  of  the  Son,  mercy ;  for  righteousness  and  ■ 
love  are  not  qualities  in  him,  who  is  Righteousness  and  who  is  Love ; — 
they  cannot,  therefore,  be  set  one  against  the  other,  since  they  are  his 
essential  being.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  not,  while  escaping 
this  error,  fall  into  the  opposite,  letting  go  the  reality  of  God's  wrath 
against  sin, — the  reality  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  not  merely  on  the  side 
with  which  it  looks  towards  men,  but  also  on  the  side  with  which  it  looks 
towards  God;  the  death  of  Christ  was  really  a  propitiation  of  God,  not 
merely  an  assurance  of  God's  love  towards  sinners.  The  way  of  escape 
from  both  these  errors  is  shown  to  us  in  those  words  :  "  the  Lamb  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world"  (Rev.  xiii.  8);  "foreordained  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world "  (1  Pet.  i.  20).  The  sacrifice,  though  of 
necessity  outwardly  brought  to  pass  in  time.  "  now  manifest  in  these  last 
times  for  you,"  yet  took  place  in  the  purpose  of  him  who  otiered,  and  of 


arboris  desuper  umbra  densatur,  et  solis  radius  ad  terram  doscendere  nequaquam 
permittitur.  Corn,  a  Lapide;  Terram  inertem  et  sterilem  reddit,  turn  umbra  suft. 
turn  radicibns  suis,  quibus  succum  terrse  vicinis  vitibus  eripit  et  prajripit.  Even 
so  we  have  in  Shakspeare : — 

"  The  noisome  weeds  that  without  profit  suck 
The  soil's  fertility  iVom  wholesome  flowers." 

The  word  KaTopytiv  is  a  very  favorite  one  with  St.  Paul,  occurring  no  less  than 
twenty-six  times  in  his  Ei)istles;  and  only  here  besides  in  the  N.  T.  We  have 
ikpyovs  and  d/fapirovs  joined  together,  2  Pet.  i.  8.    See  Suicek's  Tlics.,  s.  v. 


288  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE. 

him  who  accepted  it,  before  all  time,  or  rather,  out  of  time ;  so  that  we 
must  not  conceive  of  man  as  ever  not  contemplated  by  God  in  Christ: 
there  was  no  change  in  Grod's  mind  concerning  the  sinner,*  because  he 
who  beholdeth  the  end  from  the  beginning,  had  beheld  him  from  the  first 
as  reconciled  and  re-constituted  in  his  Son.  (Rom.  xvi.  25,  26.)  In 
this  view  we  may  consider  the  high  priestly  intercession  of  Christ  as 
having  found  place  and  been  efi"ectual  even  before  he  passed  from  earth 
into  the  heavens, — before  he  had  carried  his  own  blood  into  the  truly 
Holy  of  holies  if  for  to  that  intercession  all  the  long-suflPering  of  God 
toward  sinners  is  to  be  referred  ; — "  The  earth  and  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof  are  dissolved  ;  I  bear  up  the  pillars  of  it."  (Ps.  Ixxv.  3.)  Some 
of  the  Fathers  see  here  allusion  also  to  the  intercessory  work,  which  the 
Church,  in  its  healthy  members,  is  ever  carrying  forward  on  behalf  of 
its  sick  members,  or  that  of  the  Church  for  the  world. J  No  doubt  such 
intercession  is  always  going  forward,  and  has  a  real  worth  before  God 
(Gen.  xviii.  23-33  ;  Exod.  xxxii.  11 ;  Job  xlii.  8;  1  Sam.  xii.  19,  23;  2 
Kin.  xix.  24;  Jer.  xv.  1 ;  1  Tim.  ii.  1-4;  Jam.  v.  14-18;  1  John  v.  16), 
and  such  need  not  here  be  of  necessity  excluded ;  but  at  the  same  time, 
it  seems  simpler  and  more  satisfactory,  with  Theophylact  and  others,  to 
refer  this  primarily  to  that  one  Intercessor,  on  whose  intercession  that 
of  all  others  must  ultimately  rest.  It  is  plain,  too,  that  he  must  be 
meant,  for  the  pleader  now  is  the  same  who  but  for  this  pleading  should 
have  executed  the  sentence.  But  to  him  only,  to  whom  all  judgment  is 
committed,  could  the  command  have  been  given,  "  Cut  it  doivn?''  Cer- 
tainly it  would  not  have  been  given  to  men ;  for  if  to  any  beside  him,  it 
must  have  been  to  the  angels.     (Matt.  xiii.  29,  30.) 

As  he  pleads  for  men,  not  with  the  purpose  that  they  may  continue 
in  their  sins  with  impunity,  but  obtains  that  their  sentence  may  for  a 
while  be  suspended  to  see  if  they  will  turn  and  repent,  so  the  vine- 
dresser here  pleads  for  the  barren  tree,  not  that  it  may  be  suifered  to 
stand  for  ever,  though  it  continue  in  barrenness  (for  on  the  contrary  he 
consents  to  its  doom,  if  it  thus  continue  unfruitful,  as  a  doom  righteous 


*  Augustine  (Serm.  254,  c.  2)  :  Interpellat  misericors  misericordem.  Qui  enim 
se  volebat  exhibere  misericordem,  ipse  sibi  opposuit  intercessor um. 

f  Cocceius  and  bis  followers,  as  is  well  known,  laid  much  stress  on  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  irdpeais  (Rom  iii.  25)  and  the  icpecris  aaapTiuv.  The  first,  the 
jwefcrmission  of  sins  through  the  forbearance  of  God,  they  said  was  what  the  Son 
obtained  for  men  till  he  had  actually  come  in  the  flesh,  and  then  ensued  the  &<f>i(Tis, 
or  entire  remission,  the  last  going  along  with  the  gift  of  regeneration,  exclusively 
the  prerogative  of  the  New  Covenant. 

X  As  Aiignstine  {Smn.  110,  c.  1)  :  Qui  intercedit  colonus  est  omnia  sanctus,  qui 
intra  Ecclesiam  orat  pro  iis  qui  sunt  extra  Ecclesiam. 


THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE.  289 

and  good)  ;*  but  he  asks  for  it  one  year  of  grace,  to  see  if  it  will  yet  do 
better :  "  If  it  bear  fruit.  well;\  and  if  not.  then  after  tluit  tftou  shall 
cut  it  doicn?  During  this  year  he  •'  he  icill  dig  about  it  and  dung  it:'' 
that  is 'he  will  hollow  out  the  earth  from  arouud  the  stem  of  the  tree, 
and  afterwards  fill  up  the  hollow  with  manure ;  as  one  may  often  see 
done  now  to  the  orange-trees  in  the  south  of  Italy.|  By  these  appliances 
is  signified  that  multiplication  of  the  means  of  grace,  which  in  God's 
dealing  with  men,  we  may  so  often  observe  to  find  place  at  the  last  mo- 
ment,— before  those  means  arc  withdrawn  for  ever.  Thus,  before  the 
flood,  they  had  Noah,  a  "  preacher  of  righteousness," — before  the  great 
catastrophes  of  the  Jews,  they  had  among  them  some  of  their  most  emi- 
nent prophets,  as  Jeremiah  before  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chal- 
daeans, — and  before  its  filial  destruction,  they  enjoyed  the  ministry  of 
Christ  and  of  his  apostles.  To  this  last,  no  doubt,  allusion  is  here  more 
immediately  made,  to  that  larger,  richer  supply  of  grace, — that  freer  out- 
pouring of  the  Spirit,  which  was  consequent  on  the  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion, and  ascension,  of  the  Lord.  So  Theophylact  explains  this  digging 
about  and  manuring  the  hitherto  unfruitful  tree :  "  Though  they  were 
not  made  better  by  the  law  and  the  prophets,  nor  yielded  fruit  of  repent- 
ance, yet  will  I  water  them  by  my  doctrines  and  passion ;  it  may  be, 
they  will  then  yield  fruits  of  obedience."  No  doubt  if  the  history  of 
men's  lives  were  writ  as  large  as  the  history  of  nations  and  of  churches, 
and  could  we,  therefore,  read  the  histor}'  of  those  as  plainly  as  of  these, 
we  should  oftener  perceive  that  what  is  true  of  the  last  is  also  true  of 
the  first :  we  should  mark  critical  moments  in  men's  lives  to  which  all 
the  future  was  linked,  on  which  it  was  made  altogether  to  depend, — 
times  of  gracious  visitation  which  it  was  of  the  deepest  importance  to 
know,  and  not  to  sufiier  to  escape  unobserved  and  unimproved.  Such  a 
time  of  visitation  to  the  Jewish  people  was  the  Lord's  ministry  in  the 
midst  of  it  (Luke  xix.  42) :  then  was  the  digging  about  and  manuring 
the  tree  which  had  been  so  long  barren.  But  it  abode  in  its  barrenness, 
— its  day  of  grace  came  to  an  end ;  and,  as  here  is  threatened,  it  was 
inexorably  cut  down.  We  may  observe,  however,  that  in  the  parable  our 
Lord  does  not  actually  affirm  that  the  tree  will  certainly  continue  un- 
fruitful to  the  last,  but  suggests  tlic  other  alternative  as  possible ;  "  If' 


*  With  a  play  on  the  words,  Augustine  (Scrm.  110,  c.  4) :  Dilata  est  sccuris, 
noli  esse  sccura ;  and  elsewhere,  Distulit  sccnrhn,  non  dedit  sccuritntcm. 

t  TVe  have  the  same  suspended  sense,  with  eS,  or  some  word  similar,  understood, 
Luke  xxii.  42. 

X  For  a  useful  spiritual  application  of  the  words,  see  Augustine,  Scrvi.  254  and 
110,  c.  1 :  Sordes  cultoris,  dolores  sunt  peccatoris.  Cf.  Ambrose,  De  Pcenit,  1.  2, 
c.  1. 

19 


290  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE. 

it  bear  fruit,  %cclV  For  thus  the  door  of  repentance  is  left  open  to  all; 
they  are  warned  that  they  are  not  shut  up,  except  indeed  by  their  own 
evil  will,  in  unbelief  and  hardness  of  heart,*  that  it  is  they  only  them- 
selves who  make  inevitable  their  doom. 

*  Rosenmuller  (AWe  ^md  Ncue  Morgenland,  v.  5,  p.  187)  quotes  from  an  Arabian 
writer  the  following  receipt  for  curing  a  palm-tree  of  barrenness.  "  Thou  must 
take  a  hatchet,  and  go  to  the  tree  with  a  friend,  unto  whom  thou  sayest,  I  will  cut 
down  this  tree,  for  it  is  unfruitful.  He  answers,  Do  not  so,  this  year  it  will  cer- 
tainly bear  fruit.  But  the  other  says,  It  must  needs  be, — it  must  be  hewn  down ; 
and  gives  the  stem  of  the  tree  three  blows  with  the  back  of  the  hatchet.  But  the 
other  restrains  him,  crying.  Nay,  do  it  not,  thou  wilt  certainly  have  fruit  from  it 
this  year,  only  have  patience  with  it,  and  be  not  over-hasty  in  cutting  it  down ;  if  it 
still  refuses  to  bear  fruit,  then  cut  it  down.  Then  will  the  tree  that  year  be  cer- 
tainly fruitful  and  bear  abundantly."  The  same  story  is  to  be  found  in  Ruckert's 
Brahmanische  Erzdhlungeti,  so  that  it  would  appear  widely  spread  in  the  East;  also 
in  S.  DE  Sacy's  Chrest.  Arabe,  v.  2,  p.  379 ;  and  in  the  collection  of  tracts  De  Re 
Rustica,  entitled  Geoponica. 


XXI. 
THE   GREAT   SUPPER. 

Luke  xiv.  15-24. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  repeat  the  arguments  which  seem  to  prove 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  this  pai-able,  and  that  recorded  at 
Matt.  xxii.  2,  are  entirely  different,  spoken  upon  different  occasions, 
and  with  (partially)  different  aims.  On  the  present  occasion,  the  Lord 
had  been  invited  to  eat  bread  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  chief  of  the 
Pharisees.  (Ver.  1.)  Much  happened  at  this  meal,  which  was  proba- 
bly no  common  meal,  but  an  entertainment  prepared  with  much  cost  and 
expense,  and  at  which  many,  and  it  is  lilcely,  guests  of  consideration,  were 
present.  This  would  seem  probable  for  many  reasons;  there  were  con- 
tests among  the  guests  for  precedency,  or  at  least  a  silent,  but  not  un- 
observed or  unrebuked,  attempt  on  the  part  of  some  to  select  for  them- 
selves the  places  of  honor  and  dignity.*  (Ver.  7.)  Then  again,  in 
the  Lord's  address  to  his  host,  in  which  he  points  out  to  him  a  more  ex- 
cellent way  of  hospitality  (ver.  12),  it  would  seem  implied  that  at  that 
feast  were  present  many  of  his  kindred  and  richer  neighbors — such  a 
supposition  adds  much  force  to  the  admonishment.  And  yet  further, 
our  Saviour  so  often  borrowed  the  images  of  his  parables  from  that  which 
was  actually  at  the  moment  present  before  his  eyes  and  the  eyes  of  his 
■hearers — that  his  speaking  of  a  certain  man  having  made  a  great  supper, 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  also  at  which  he  was  now  sitting  was 
no  ordinary,  but  rather  some  costly  and  numerously  attended  enter- 
tainment. 

Thq  circumstances  out  of  which  the  parable  immediately  grew  were 
these :  one  that  sat  at  the  table  with  him,  after  hearing  some  of  the  gra- 
cious words  that  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth,  could  not  help  exclaiming, 

*  Thi.s  .snatching:  at  the  first  places  is  adduced  by  Thcophrastus  {Char.  21)  as 
an  example  of  •the  niKpoftKorinla.    -Si'e  also  Bbcker's  Charikles,  v.  1,  p.  427. 


292  THE  GREAT  SUPPER. 

certainly  not  in  the  spirit  of  mockery,  rather  in  approval  and  admira- 
tion. "  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  cat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God  !"  But 
how,  it  may  be  asked,  came  the  Lord's  last  words,  "  Thou  shalt  be 
recompensed  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just,"  to  elicit  exactly  this  obser- 
vation ?  what  natural  connection  was  there  between  the  two,  for  such  a 
connection  is  evidently  marked  in  the  narrative  ?  When  we  keep  in 
mind  tlie  notions  then  current  among  the  Jews  concerning  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  just,  or,  which  was  the  same  thing,  the  open  setting  up  of  the 
kingdom  of  God. — that  it  would  be  ushered  in  by  a  great  and  glorious 
festival.*  of  which  all  the  members  of  that  kingdom  should  be  partakers, 
it  is  at  once  easy  to  perceive  how  this  man's  thoughts,  a  man  it  might  be 
with  certain  favorable  dispositions  towards  the  truth,  but  of  a  carnal 
mind  like  the  most  of  his  countrymen,  should  have  passed  on  from  the 
resurrection  of  the  just,  of  which  Jesus  spake,  to  the  great  festival  which 
was  to  accompany  that  resurrection,  or  rather,  should  have  interpreted 
the  Lord's  words,  when  he  spake  of  the  recompense  that  would  then  be 
given  to  the  merciful,  as  meaning  participation  in  that  festival.  His 
exclamation,  "  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God  !" 
might  be  unfolded  thus ;  "  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  share  in  the  recom- 
pense whereof  thou  speakest,  in  the  reward  which  shall  be  given 
at  the  resurrection  of  the  just."  His  words  are  an  earthly  way  of  say- 
ing, '•  Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the  first  resurrection  !"  It 
is  likel}'  from  the  warning  conveyed  in  the  parable,  which  we  are  told 
was  particularly,  though  we  cannot  suppose  exclusively,  addressed  to 
him,  that  he  spoke  these  words  with  a  very  easy  and  comfortable  assur- 
ance that  he  should  make  one  of  those  that  should  thus  eat  bread  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  He,  as  a  Jew,  as  a  member  of  the  elect  nation,  had 
been  invited  to  that  great  feast  of  God  ;  that  was  all  which  he  paused  to 
consider :  and  not  whether  he  had  truly  accepted  the  call,  or,  on  the 
contrary,  had  suffered  carnal  desires  and  lusts  to  keep  him  away  from 
rightly  embracing  it ;  certainly  he  had  not  at  all  considered  whether  in 
the  refusal  to  enter  into  that  higher  spiritual  life  of  the  Gospel,  to  which 
Christ  was  now  inviting  him.  there  was  not  involved  his  own  ultimate 
rejection  from  the  heavenly  festival.!  For  his  warning,  and  for  the 
warning  of  all  like-minded  with  him,  the  parable  was  spoken. 

"  A  certain  man  made  a  great  sujyperP  Many  have  said,  "  a  supper ^^ 
because  as  a  supper  takes  place  at  evening,  so  it  was  in  the  evening  of 


*  See  Eisenmenger's  Entdcckt.  Jwhnthum.  v.  2,  p.  872,  seq. — Augustine  warn- 
ing against  a  carnal  interpretation,  exclaims  concerning  this  supper :  Noli  parare 
fauces,  sed  cor. 

t  Augustine  (Srrm,  112,  c.  6) ;  Quasi  in  longinqua  iste  suspii-abat,  et  ipse  Panis 
ante  ilium  discunibcbat. 


THE  GREAT  SUPPER.  293 

time,  the  last  hour  (1  John  ii.  18;  1  Cor.  x.  11),  that  Christ  came,  and 
invited  men  to  the  fulness  of  Gospel  blessings.  But  this  is  pressing  the 
word  of  the  original*  too  far,  which  is  of  very  wide  and  fluctuating  use  : 
a  great  feast,  and  nothing  more,  is  signified.  Men's  relish  is  so  little, 
their  desire  so  faint  for  the  things  heavenly,  therefore  are  they  present- 
ed to  them  under  such  inviting  images  as  this,  that  if  possible  they  may 
be  stirred  up  to  a  more  earnest  longing  after  them.f — ''■And  badc\ 
mani/^ — these  were  the  Jews,  and  the  latter  parts  of  the  parable  oblige 
us  to  understand  by  those  bidden,  not  so  miich  the  entire  nation,  as  those 
who  might  be  taken  for  the  peculiar  representatives  of  the  theocracy, 
the  priests  and  the  elders,  the  scribes  and  the  Pliarisces,  in  opposition  to 
the  publicans  and  sinners,  and  all  the  despised  portions  of  the  people. 
Those  other  as  claiming  to  be  zealous  for  the  law.  to  be  following  after 
righteousness,  seemed  as  it  were  to  be  pointed  out  as  the  first  who 
should  embrace  the  invitation  of  Christ  The  maker  of  the  feast  "  sent 
his  servant  at  supper-time,  to  say  to  them  tliat  were  bidden^  Co7ne,for  all 
things  are  now  ready."  Some  will  have  that  the  guests,  in  needing  thus 
to  be  reminded  that  the  hour  of  supper  had  arrived,  already  began  to 
show  how  slightly  they  esteemed  the  invitation ;  but  this  is  a  mistake, 

*  Aeitrvov,  which,  as  is  well  known,  originally, — at  least  in  the  time  of  Homer, 
— meant  the  morning,  in  opposition  to  the  evening,  meal,  and  as  little  indicates 
the  time  when  the  meal  was  made  as  does  the  Latin  ccEna.  Or  even  granting  that 
^(iTTvov  in  the  later  Greek  of  the  New  Testament  had  come  to  signify  the  evening 
meal,  yet  still  its  being  the  chief  and  most  important  meal  in  the  day,  was  naturally 
what  caused  it  here  to  be  selected,  and  not  the  accidental  circumstance  of  its 
being  celebrated  towards  evening. 

t  A  sermon  by  Gregory  the  Great  {Hovi.  36  in  Ecang.)  on  this  parable  begins 
beautifully  thus :  Hoc  (listare  inter  delicias  corporis  et  cordis  solet.  quod  corporales 
delicicE  cum  non  habentur,  grave  in  se  desiderium  accendunt ;  cdm  vero  habitae 
eduntnr,  comedentem  protinus  in  fastidium  vertunt.  At  contrJi  spiritales  deliciae, 
ciim  non  habentur,  in  fastidio  sunt:  cum  ver6  habentur,  in  desiderio;  tantoque  & 
comedente  amplius  esuriuntur,  quant6  et  ab  esuriente  amplius  comeduntur.  In 
illis  appetitus  placet,  experientia  displicet ;  in  istis  appetitus  vilis  est,  et  experieutia 
magis  placet. 

%  KcLKfiv,  like  the  Latin  vocare,  is  the  technical  word  for  the  inviting  to  a  festi- 
val. (Matt.  xxii.  3 ;  John  ii.  2;  1  Cor.  x.  27.)  It  is  also  the  word  which  St.  Pa'.l 
uses  to  express  the  union  of  an  outward  word  bidding,  and  an  inward  Si>irit  draw- 
ing, whereby  God  seeks  to  bring  men  into  his  kingdom.  The  answering  word  in 
St.  John  is  i\Kveiv  (vi.  44;  xii.  32).  They  have  both  their  peculiar  fitness,  in  that 
both  express  how  the  power  lyonght  to  bear  on  man's  will  is  a  moral  i)ower,  and 
man  a  moral  being  capable  though  called  of  not  coming,  if  he  chooses. — of  resist- 
ing tlie  attraction  that  would  draw  liini  if  he  will.  This  attraction  or  bidding,  out- 
ward by  the  Word,  inward  by  tin-  Si)irit  is  the  kXtjo-js  017/0  (2  Tim.  i.  0).  K\rjins  tow 
0foD  (Rom.  xi.  29).  K\ri(ns  iirovpavios  (Ileb.  iii.  1)  »;  &vc>}  kA^o-is  (Phil.  iii.  14), — 
which  last  is  not  the  calling  lo  a  height  but  the  calling  frtnii  a  height;  not,  as  we 
have  it,  the  "high  calling,"  but      the  calling  fro7>i  on  high." 


294  THE  GREAT  SUPPER. 

as  it  has  been  already  observed  that  such  was  the  usual  custom ;  and 
their  contempt  of  the  honor  done  them,  and  their  neglect  of  their  word 
given, — for  we  must  suppose  they  had  accepted  the  invitation  before, — 
is  first  testified  by  their  excuses  for  not  appearing  at  the  festival. — There 
was,  beyond  a  doubt,  in  the  world's  history  a  time,  when  more  than  any 
other  it  might  be  said  "  all  things,  are  now  ready P  a  fulness  of  time,* 
which,  when  it  was  arrived,  and  not  till  then,  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
was  set  up,  and  men  invited,  the  Jew  first,  and  afterwards  the  Gentile, 
to  enter  into  it.  The  servant  who  is  sent  to  bid  the  guests  is  not,  as 
Theophylact  assumes,  our  blessed  Saviour  himself,  who  "  took  the  form 
of  a  servant,"  and  might  therefore  be  aptly  represented  under  this  name. 
Nor  yet  can  we  include  under  this  single  servant,  the  prophets  of  the 
old  covenant,  for  it  is  not  till  '•  all  things  me  noio  readif  that  this  ser- 
vant is  sent  forth.  He  represents  then  not  the  heralds  who  went  before 
the  king,  but  those  who  accompanied  him,  preachers,  evangelists,  and 
apostles,  all  who,  reminding  the  Jews  of  the  prophecies  that  went  before 
concerning  the  coming  kingdom  of  God  and  their  share  in  that  king- 
dom,! bade  them  now  enter  on  the  enjoyment  of  those  good  things,  which 
were  no  longer  good  things  in  the  distance,  but  now  actually  present. 

"  And  they  all  with  one  consent''''  \  (or,  out  of  one  mind  or  spirit) 
^^ began  to  make  excuse^^^  Whether  there  is  any  essential  difi"erence 
between  the  excuse  which  the  first  guest  oifers,  and  that  offered  by  the 
second,  whether  by  these  are  represented  hindrances  diff"erent  in  their 
nature  and  character  which  keep  back  different  men  from  Christ,  or  that 
bntli  would  alike  teach  us  the  same  general  lesson,  that  the  love  of  the 
world  takes  away  from  men  a  desire  after  and  a  relish  for  heavenly 
things,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine.  I  should  imagine  there  was  a  dif- 
ference, as  I  have  already  incidentally  suggested,  in  speaking  of  the 
cognate  parable  in  St  Matthew.  Perhaps  the  first  who  said,  "  /  have 
bought   a  2>i^ce  of  ground,   and  I  must  needs  go  and  see  it"  repre- 

*  Tlieophylact  lias  here  a  remarkable  comparison ;  he  has  remarked  the  height 
to  which  the  wickedness  of  the  world  had  reached  at  the  time  of  the  Saviour's 
coming'  and  goes  on  :  "Clcnrep  yap  vocnj/xa  vnovXov  Ka\  /ca/coTj&es  kSiaiv,  oi  larpol  ■Ko.vra 
rhv  TTovqphv  x^h'-^v  eKpTj^ai  el^'  ovtws  ras  (pap[xaKeias  iirdyovcnv.  ovtus  koI  t^v  a/jLapriav 
eSei  navTa  to  oiKe7a  iavTrjs  elfSTj  iirtSei^aa^ai.  elra  rhu  fXfyay  larphv  eTri^eluai  rh 
<f>dpfiaKov. 

t  Augustine  :  Qui  sunt  invitati,  nisi  per  praemissos  vocati  prophetasi 

X  Tvifji-qs.  KapSlas.  OF  some  similar  word,  must  be  supplied  ;  and  such,  as  mark- 
ing the  oneness  of  spirit  out  of  which  all  the  refusals  proceeded,  would,  I  think, 
be  better  than  ^wvris.  which  some  propose. 

^  UapaiTf7a^at  is  used  for  recusare  and  excusare ;  for  the  first.  Acts  xxv.  11 ;  for 
the  second  at  ver.  19  of  this  parable,  where  ex^  fj.€  TrapriTr)fj.evov  is  rather  a  Latin 
phrase  (habeas  me  cxcusatum)  than  a  Greek  one.     'Eiraii'€7i/ ttjv  kXtjo-w  would  bo 
the  more  classic  phrase  for  declining  an  invitation. 
t 


THE  GREAT  SUPPER.  295 

sents  those  who  are  elate  of  heart  through  acquired  possessions.  He  is 
going  to  see  his  ground,  not  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  Ahab  when  he  visit- 
ed the  vineyard  which  he  had  taken  by  violence,  for  there  is  no  guilt 
of  the  sort,  and  it  makes  much  for  the  earnestness  of  the  warning  con- 
veyed in  the  parable,  that  there  is  no  such  attributed  to  any  of  the 
guests,  that  none  are  kept  away  by  any  occupation  in  itself  sinful — and 
yet  all  become  sinful,  because  they  are  allowed  to  interfere  with  higher 
objects,  because  the  first  place,  instead  of  a  place  merely  subordinate, 
is  given  to  them.  But  he  is  going  to  see  his  possession  that  he  may 
glory  in  it,  as  Nebuchadnezzar  gloried  when  he  walked  in  his  palace 
and  said,  "  Is  not  this  great  Babylon  that  I  have  built  ...  by  the  might 
of  my  power,  and  for  the  honor  of  my  majesty  ?"  (Dan.  iv.  30.) 
While  in  him  then  it  is  "the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of  life" 
which  are  indicated  as  the  things  keeping  him  from  Christ,  with  the 
second  guest  it  is  rather  the  care  and  anxiety  of  business  which  till 
his  soul ;  he  has  made  an  important  purchase,  and  cannot  put  off  for  a 
single  day  the  trial  of  how  it  is  likely  to  turn  out  ;*  "  /  Jtavc  bought 
Jive]  yoke  of  oxen,  and  I  go  to  prove  the?7i."  He  is  one  who  is  getting 
what  the  other  has  already  got. 

If  in  these  two  it  is  the  pride  and  the  business,  in  the  last  it  is  the 
pleasure,  of  the  world  that  keeps  him  from  Christ.  "  See  you  not  that 
I  have  a  feast  of  my  own  ?  why  trouble  me  then  with  yours  ?  /  have 
married  a  loife,  and  therefore  I  cannot  cwjtc."^  The  other  two,  even 
while  they  plead  their  excuses,  are  themselves  conscious  that  they  are 
hardly  valid,  so  that  they  add  out  of  a  sense  of  this  their  insufiiciency, 
"  I  pray  thee  have  me  excused.''''  But  this  one  accounts  that  he  lias  a  rea- 
son perfectly  good,  why  he  should  not  attend,  and  troubles  not  himself, 
therefore,  to  make  a  courteous  denial,  but  bluntly  refuses.^  As  there 
was  an  ascending  scale  of  contumacy  in  the  bearing  of  the  guests  in  the 
other  parable  (Matt,  xxii.),  some  making  light  of  the  message,  others 

*  So  Augustine  {Serm.  112,  c.  2):  In  villa,  oiiipta.,  dominatio  notatur;  ergo  su- 

perbia  castigatur, vitium  mahiin.  vitiinn  jjrimura.     Ili.s  my.stical  c'.\i)lana- 

tion  of  the  thing.s  wliich  kept  away  the  .second  guest  is  less  satisfactory,  but  this  is 
as  true  as  beautiful :  Amor  rerum  terrenaruni,  viscum  est  spiritalium  pcnnarum. 
Ecce  concupisti,  haesisti.  Quis  tibi  dabit  pennas,  ut  columbas,  quando  volabis  ubi 
verfe  requiescas,  quando  hie  ubi  mal6  luusisti,  perversa  requiescere  voluisti  1  Cf. 
Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxxxviii.  10. 

t  The  number  need  not  perplex  us,  as  Elijah  (1  Kin.  xix.  19)  found  Elisha 
ploughing  with  twelve  yoke  of  oxen.  As  a  bullock  unaccustomed  to  the  yoke 
would  be  nearly  useless,  the  trial  of  the  oxen  was  very  needful,  and  was  probably 
to  find  i)lace  before  the  purchase  was  finally  concluded. 

:f  On  the  same  grounds  Croesus  would  excuse;  his  son  from  the  great  hunting 
party  {Hrrod.  1.  1,  c.  86) :  tie6yaixis  re  yap  iari.  koI  ravri  oi  vvu  ixtKfi. 

^  Bengel:  Ilic  excusator.  riu6  speciosiorem  et  honestiorem  vldetur  liabere  cau- 
sam,  eo  est  ceteris  importunior. 


296  THE  GREAT  SUPPER. 

killing  the  messengers,  so  is  it  here.  It  is  true  that  in  none  does  the 
evil  grow  to  such  an  enormous  height  as  there,  yet  still  is  there  this 
same  ascending  scale.  The  first  would  be  very  glad  to  come,  if  only  it 
were  possible,  if  there  were  not  a  constraining  necessity  keeping  him 
away.  It  is  a  needs  be,  so  at  least  he  describes  it,  so  he  would  have  it 
no  doubt  represented  to  the  maker  of  the  feast.  The  second  alleges  no 
such  constraining  necessity,  but  is  simply*  going  upon  sufficient  reason 
in  another  direction ;  yet  he  too,  at  the  same  time,  prays  to  be  excused. 
The  third  has  plans  of  his  own,  and  says  outright  "  /  cannot  come?'' 
According  to  the  Levitical  law,  this  reason  of  his  would  have  been  a 
sufficient  one  why  he  should  not  have  gone  to  the  battle  (Deut.  xxiv.  5j, 
but  it  is  none  why  he  should  not  coine  to  the  feast.* 

In  what  remarkable  connection  do  the  words,  put  into  the  mouth  of 
the  guests,  stand  with  the  declaration  of  the  Saviour  which  presently  after 
follows,  "  If  any  man  come  to  me,  and  hate  not  his  father,  and  mother, 
and  wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life 
also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple  ;"t  and  how  apt  a  commentary  on  the 
parable  is  supplied  by  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  This  I  say,  brethren,  the 
time  is  short ;  it  remaineth  that  both  they  that  have  wives  be  as  though 
they  had  none,  and  they  that  weep  as  though  they  wept  not,  and  they 
that  rejoice  as  though  they  rejoiced  not,  and  they  that  buy  as  though  they 
possessed  not,  and  they  that  use  this  world  as  not  abusing  it"  (1  Cor. 
vii.  29-31),  since  it  was  not  the  having — for  they  had  nothing  which  it 
was  not  lawful  for  men  to  have — but  the  unduly  loving  these  things, 
which  proved  their  hindrance,  and  ultimately  excluded  them  from  the 
feast. 

The  servant  returns  and  declares  to  his  lord  the  ill  success  which  he 
has  met — how  all  have  excused  themselves  from  coming — even  as  hitherto 
■it  is  probable  that  in  no  single  instance,  had  any  one  of  the  spiritual 
chiefs  of  the  Jewish  nation  attached  himself  openly,  and  without  reserve, 
to  Christ,  so  that  they  could  say,  "  Have  any  of  the  rulers  or  of  the  Phari- 
sees believed  on  him?"  (John  vii.  48.)  '■'•  Tli£n\  the  master  of  the 
house  bring  angry,  said  to  his  servant,  Go  out  quickhj  into  the  streets  and 
lanes  of  the  city,  and  bring  in  hither  the  2^oor.  and  tlie  maimed,  and  the 
halt,  and  the  blind."     In  these  words  there  would  seem  a  distinct  remi- 

*  Gerhard  gives  well  the  three  hindrances  in  thiec  words,  Dig-nitates,  opes,  vo- 
hiptates;  and  in  the  old  monkish  rhj-mcs  there  is  evidently  an  interpretation  of 
them  intended,  something  similar  to  that  given  ahove  : 

Uxor,  villa,  bove.5,  coenam  clausere  vocatis ; 
Mundus,  cura,  caro  coelum  clausere  renatis. 

t  Of  all  the  excuses  made  by  the  invited  guests,  Bengel  well  says :  His  omnibuj 
mederi  ])()terat  sanctum  illud  odium,  ver.  26. 
^  Ambrose :  Post  divitum  resui)ina  fostidia. 


THE  GREAT  SUPPER.  297 

niscence  of  the  precept  which  Christ  just  before  had  given  to  him  at 
whose  table  he  was  sitting^;  "Call  thou  the  poor,  tlie  maimed,  the  lame, 
the  blind."  (Ver.  13.)  He  would  encourage  him  to  this  by  showin<» 
him  that  it  is  even  thus  with  the  great  Giver  of  the  heavenly  feast.  lie 
calls  the  spiritually  sick,  the  spiritually  needy ;  while  the  rich  in  their 
own  virtues,  in  their  own  merits,  at  once  exclude  themselves  and  are  ex- 
cluded by  him,  he  calls  these  poor  to  sit  down  at  his  table.  The  people 
who  knew  not  the  law,  and  whom  the  Pharisees  accounted  cursed — the 
despised  and  outcasts  orthe  nation,  the  publicans  and  sinners,  they  should 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  before  the  great,  the  wise,  the  proud, — 
before  those  who  said  they  saw, — before  those  who  thanked  God  they 
were  not  as  other  men, — before  those  who  counted  that  they  had  need 
of  nothing. 

Hitherto  the  parable  has  been  historic,  now  it  passes  on  to  be  pro- 
phetic, for  it  declares  how  God  had  a  larger  purpose  of  grace  than  could/ 
be  satisfied  by  the  coming  in  pf  a  part  and  remnant  of  the  Jewish  peo-\ 
pie, — that  he  had  prepared  a  feast,  at  which  more  shall  sit  down  than 
they, — that  he  has  founded  a  Church,  in  which  there  would  be  room  for 
Gentile  as  well  as  Jew, — that  those,  too,  should  be  "fellow-citizens  with 
the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God  "  It  is  not  that  this  is  explicitly 
declared  in  the  parable,  for  the  time  was  not  yet  for  unfolding  plainly  the 
great  mystery  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles  ;  but  it  lay  wrapt  up  therein, 
and,  like  so  much  else  in  Scripture,  biding  its  time.  The  servant 
returning  from  the  accomplishing  of  his  second  mission  had  said,  "Xo/yZ, 
it  is  do)ie  as  thou  hast  commanded^  and  yet  tliere  is  room}'' — whereupon, 
since  grace  will  endure  a  vacuum  as  little  as  nature,*  he  receives  a  new 
commission,  "  Go  out  into  the  hightvays  and  hedges,  and  compel  tliem  to 
come  in,  thai  my  house  may  bejilled."  If  those  in  the  streets  and  the 
lanes  of  the  city  are  the  most  abject  of  the  Jews,  the  meaner,  the  more 
ignorant,  the  more  sinful,  then  those  without  the  city — which  city  will 
here  b"  the  symbol  of  the  theocracy — those  in  the  country  round,  those 
wandering  in  the  highways  and  camping,  as  Gipsies  now-a-days.  under 
the  hedges,  will  be  the  yet  more  despised,  and  yet  more  morally  abject 
Gentiles,  the  'pagans  in  all  senses  of  the  word. 

Concerning  these  the  master  says,  "  Compel  them  to  come  i/i."  It  is 
strange  how  any  argument  for  a  compulsion,  save  indeed  a  moral  one, 
should  ever  have  been  here  drawn  from  these  words.  In  the  first  place, 
in  the  letter  of  the  parable  to  suppose  any  other  compulsion,  save  that 
of  earnest  persuasion,  is  absurd  ;  for  how  can  we  imagine  this  single  ser- 
vant— for  he  is  but  one  throughout — driving  before  him.  and  that  from 
the  country  into  the  city,  a  flock  of  unwilling  guests,  and  these,  too, 
gathered  from  those  rude  and  lawless  men  unto  whom  he  is  now  sent 

*  Bcngel :  Ncc  natura  nee  gratia  patitur  vacuum. 


298  THE  GREAT  SUPPER. 

The  words  imply,  not  that  the  giver  of  the  feast  assumed  there  would 
be,  on  their  part,  any  reluctance  to  accept  the  invitation  which  should 
need  to  be  overcome,  any  indiiference  toward  it,  but  exactly  the  contrary. 
It  was  rather  that  these  houseless  dwellers  in  the  highways,  and  by  the 
hedges,  would  hold  themselves  so  unworthy  of  the  invitation  as  scarcely 
to  believe  it  was  intended  for  them,  scarcely  to  be  induced — without 
earnest  persuasion,  without  the  application  of  something  almost  like 
force — to  enter  the  rich  man's  dwelling,  and  share  in  his  magnificent 
entertainment.  And  when  we  pass  on  to  the  spiritual  thing  siguified, 
since  faith  cannot  be  compelled,  what  can  this  compelling  men  to  come 
in  mean,*  save  that  strong,  earnest  exhortation,  which  the  ambassadors 
of  Christ  will  address  to  men,  when  they  are  themselves  deeply  con- 
vinced of  the  importance  of  the  message  which  they  bear,  and  the  mighty 
issues  which  there  are  for  every  man,  linked  with  his  acceptance  or 
rejection  of  that  message  of  the  Gospel?  If  they  "comj!?e/,"  it  will  be  as 
did  the  angels,  who,  when  Lot  lingered,  laid  hold  upon  his  hand  and 
brought  him  forth,  and  set  him  without  the  city  of  destruction  (Gen. 
xix.  IG) ;  or  the  ambassadors  of  Christ  will,  in  another  way,  compel  men 
to  come  in,  for  they  will  speak  as  delivering  the  words  of  him  who  has  a 
right  to  be  heard  by  his  creatures, — who  not  merely  entreats,  but  com- 
mands, all  men,  every  where,  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel.  Anselm 
observes,  that  God  may  be  also  said  to  compel  men  to  come  in,  when  he 
drives  them  by  strong  calamities  to  seek  and  find  refuge  with  him  and 
in  his  Church  ;t  or  as  Luther  explains  it.  they  are  compelled  to  come  in 
when  the  law  is  broadly  preached,  terrifying  their  consciences,  and 
driving  them  to  Christ,  as  their  only  refuge  and  hope. 

The  parable    closes  with  the    householder's   indignant   declaration, 
"  For  I  say  unto  you.X  that  none  oftliose  moi  ^  that  u-ere  bidden  sJudl  taste 

*  Even  Maldonatus  explains  it  thus :  Sinners,  he  says,  are  to  be  adeo  rogandos, 
adeo  invitandos,  lit  quodammodo  compelli  videantur;  and  Bengcl  says  excellently: 
Non  est  onmimoda  coactio  ....  Alitor  compulit  Saulus  pro  Judaismo  insaniens, 
aliter  Paulus  servus  Jesu  Christi.  See  on  the  other  hand  this  phrase  adduced 
3,nd  used  by  Augustine,  as  justifying  a  certain  degree  of  constraint  for  the  bringing 
men  into  the  outward  unity  of  the  Chui'ch,  Ep.  50,  De  viorler.  coerc.  Hccret.,  and 
Serm.  112.  c.  7,  where  he  says,  Foris  inveniatur  necessitas,  nascitur  intus  voluntas; 
and  compare  De  Unit.  Eccles..  c.  20,  and  Bernard,  De  Grat.  et  Lib.  Arb.,  c.  11. 

f  So,  too,  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  36  in  Evang.)  :  Qui  csgo  luijus  mundi  ad- 
versitatibus  fracti  ad  Dei  amorem  redeunt,  compelluntur  ut  intrcnt. 

rj:  The  i)lnral  vjmv  is  perplexing,  only  one  servant  having  been  named  through- 
out. Is  it  that  that  one  is  considered  as  the  representative  of  many  1  or  that  this 
declaration  is  made  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  household  1  or,  as  Bengel  explains 
it,  of  such  guests  as  were  already  by  the  first  vocation  assembled  1  Plurale  perti- 
net  ad  introductos  pauperes.  It  cannot  be  that  Christ  is  now  speaking  in  his  own 
person  to  the  Pharisees  round  him,  for  the  words  must  plainly  be  regarded  not  as 
his  words,  but  as  the  conclusion  of  the  parable,  and  spoken  by  the  householder. 

§  It  is  worth  while  observing  that  it  is  av^puv  not  av^pwnoti'  here,  which  of  itself 


THE  GREAT  SUPPER.  299 

of  my  mppc^'.''  Final  exclusion  from  the  feast,  to  ■which,  when  they 
saw  others  partaking,  they  might  wish  to  regain  admission  on  the  plea  of 
their  foriuer  invitation, — this  is  the  penalty  with  which  he  threatens 
them  ; — he  declares  they  have  forfeited  their  share  in  it,  and  for  ever ; 
that  no  after  earnestness  fn  claiming  admission  shall  profit  them  now. 
(Prov.  i.  28;  Matt.  xxv.  11,  12.) 

It  is  worth  while  to  'compare  this  parable  and  that  of  the  Marriage 
of  the  King's  Son,  for  the  purpose  of  observing  with  how  fine  a  skill  all 
the  minor  circumstances  are  arranged  in  each,  to  be  in  perfectly  consistent 
keeping.  The  master  of  the  house  here  does  not  assume,  as  he  does  not 
possess,  power  to  avenge  the  insult ;  even  as  the  ofi'ence  committed  is 
both  much  lighter  in  itself,  and  lighter  in  the  person  against  whom  it 
is  coiiimitted,  than  the  ofi'ence  which  is  so  severely  punished  in  the  paral- 
lel narration.  There  the  principal  person,  being  a  king,  has  armies  at 
his  command,  as  he  has  also  whole  bands  of  servants,  and  not  merely  a 
single  one,  to  send  forth  with  his  commands.  The  refusal  to  accept  his 
invitation,  was,  in  fact,  according  to  Eastern  notions  of  submission, 
nothing  less  than  rebellion,  and  being  accompanied  with  outrages  done 
to  his  servants,  called  out  that  terrible  retribution.  Here,  as  the  ofi'ence 
is  in  every  way  lighter,  so  also  is  the  penalty, — that  is,  in  the  outward 
circumstance  which  supplies  the  groundwork  of  the  parable,  since  it  is 
merely  exclusion  from  a  festival ;  though  we  should  remember  it  is  not 
lighter,  when  taken  in  its  spiritual  signification ;  for  it  is  nothing  less 
than  exclusion  from  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  from  all  the  blessings  of 
the  communion  of  Christ,  and  that  exclusion  implies  "  everlasting  de- 
struction from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  the  glory  of  his  power." 

brings  this  verse  into  interesting  relation,  as  indeed  the  whole  parable  suggests  the 
parallel,  with  1  Cor.  i.  26-29. 


XXII. 
THE   LOST    SHEEP. 

Matthew  xviii.  12-14 ;  Luke  xv.  3-7. 

When  St.  Luke  says,  "  Then  drew  near  to  the  Lord  all  the  publicans 
and  sinners  for  to  hear  him,"  this  does  not  imply  that  all  who  were  at 
some  particular  moment  in  a  certain  neighborhood  drew  near  with  this 
purpose ;  but  the  Evangelist  is  rather  giving  the  prevailing  feature  in 
the  whole  of  Christ's  ministry,  or  at  least  in  one  epoch  of  it — that  it  was 
such  a  ministry  as  to  draw  all  the  outcasts  of  the  nation,  the  rejected  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  round  him — that  there  was  a  secret  attraction 
in  his  person,  in  his  Word,  which  drew  all  of  them  habitually  to  him  for 
to  hear  him.*  Of  these  "publicans  and  sinners"  the  first  were  men 
infamous  among  their  countrymen  by  their  very  occupationf — the  second, 

*  We  find  this  indicated  in  the  words,  ?i(rav  eyyi(ovT€s,  whicli  here  find  place, 
instead  of  the  simpler  imperfect:  They  were  in  the  habit  of  drawing  nigh.  Grotius 
rightly:  Actum  continuum  et  quotidiannm  genus  hoc  loquendi  significat.  And  he 
compares  Luke  iv.  31 ;  to  which  he  might  have  added  Mark  ii.  18,  and  other 
examples. 

f  Te\(ovai  (arrb  rod  TfKos  uvucr^ai)  were  of  two  kinds.  The  publicani,  so  called 
while  they  were  gatherers  of  the  publlcu.m,  or  state  revenue  ;  these  were  commonly 
Roman  knights,  who  farmed  the  taxes  in  companies,  and  this  occupation  was  not 
in  disesteem,  but  the  contrary.  Besides  these  were  the  portitores,  or  exactores, 
who  are  here  meant  by  nXuvai.  men  of  an  inferior  sort,  freedmen,  provincials,  and 
the  like,  who  did  the  lower  work  of  the  collection,  and  probably  greatly  abused  the 
power  which  of  necessity  was  left  in  their  hands.  They  were  commonly  stationed 
at  frontiers,  at  gates  of  cities,  on  rivers,  at  havens  (vendentium  ijjsius  cceli  et  terrse 
et  maris  transitus;  Tertullian),  for  the  purpose  of  collecting  customs  on  the  wares 
which  were  brought  into  the  country.  They  were  sufiiciently  hateful  among  the 
Greeks  on  account  of  their  rudeness,  their  frauds,  their  vexations  and  oppressions; 
as  they  are  here  classed  with  kfjiaprooKoi,  so  by  them  with  /xoixol  and  iropvo^oaKoi.  and 
whole  lists  are  given  of  the  oijprobrious  epithets  with  which  they  were  assailed. 
Cicero  {In  Putin.  5)  gives  a  lively  picture  of  their  doings,  telling  Vatinius  he  must 
have  thought  himself  one  of  these  publicans,  ctim  omnium  domos,  apothecas,  naves, 


THE  LOST  SHEEP.  301 

such  as  till  awakened  by  him  to  repentance  and  a  sense  of  their  past 
sins,  had  been  notorious  transgressors  of  God's  holy  law.  He  did  not 
repel  them,  nor  seem  to  fear,  as  the  Pharisees  would  have  done,  pollution 
from  their  touch ;  but  being  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost,  received  them  graciously,  instructed  them  further  in  his  doctrine, 
and  lived  in  familiar  intercourse  with  them.  At  this  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  murmured  and  took  offence* — seeming  as  it  did  to  them  con- 
duct unbecoming  a  teacher  of  righteousness.  They  could  more  easily 
have  understood  a  John  Baptist,  flying  to  tlie  wilderness,  so  to  avoid  the 
contamination  of  sinners,  separating  himself  from  them  outwardly  in  the 
whole  manner  of  his  life,  as  well  as  inwardly  in  his  spirit.  And  this 
outward  separation  from  sinners,  which  was  the  Old  Testament  form  of 
righteousness,  might  have  been  needful  for  those  who  would  preserve 
their  purity  in  those  times  of  the  law  and  till  the  Lord  came, — till  he,  first 
in  his  own  person,  and  then  through  his  Church,  brought  a  far  mightier 
power  of  good  to  bear  upon  the  evil  of  the  world,  than  ever  had  been 
brought  before.  It  had  hitherto  been  prudent  for  those  who  felt  them- 
selves predisposed"to  the  infection  to  flee  from  the  infected,  but  he  was 
the  physician  who  rather  came  boldly  to  seek  out  the  infected,  that  he 
might  heal  them ;  and  furnishing  his  servants  with  divine  antidotes 
against  the  world's  sickness,  sent  them  also  boldly  to  encounter  and  over- 
come it.  This  was  what  the  Pharisees  and  scribes  could  not  understand ; 
it  seemed  to  them  impossible  that  any  one  should  walk  pure  and  unspot- 
ted amid  the  pollutions  of  the  world,  seeking  and  not  shunning  sinners. 
They  had  neither  love  to  hope  the  recovery  of  such,  nor  medicines  to 
effect  that  recovery. 

furacissim^  scrutarcro.  honiinesque  negotia  gerentes  judiciis  iniquissimis  irretires, 
mercatorcs  o  navi  egredicntes  torreres,  conscendentes  morarcre.  Clirysostom  {Dc 
Pmnit..  Horn.  ii.  4)  would  seem  to  .say  that  the  business  itself  from  its  very  nature, 
apart  from  the  frauds  to  which  it  too  often  led,  was  unrighteous :  Ov^tv  aWo  iarl 
rehdinia  ^  ireira^f)i!]<ria<rn4vri  Pla.  evvofios  afjiapria,  fvirpStrunros  irA.eoj/e|ia.  But  the 
Jewish  ixiblicans  were  furtlier  hateful  to  their  countrymen,  being  accounted  traitors 
to  thi-  <-ause  of  the  nation  and  of  God.  who  for  the  sake  of  filthy  lucre  had  sided 
with  the  Romans,  the  enemies  and  oppressors  of  the  theocracy,  and  now  collected 
for  a  heathen  treasury  that  tribute,  the  payment  of  which  was  the  evident  sign  of 
the  sulyection  of  the  people  of  God  to  a  foreign  yoke.  Of  the  abhorrence  in  which 
they  were  held  there  is  abundant  testimony ;  no  alms  might  be  received  from 
their  money-chest,  nay  it  was  not  even  lawful  to  change  money  there;  their 
evidence  was  not  received  in  courts  of  justice;  they  were  put  on  the  sam^ '.-.oi 
with  heathens  (to  keep  which  in  mind,  adds  an  emphasis  to  Luke  xix.  9).  and  no 
doubt  as  renegades  and  traitors,  were  far  more  abhorred  even  than  the  heathen 
themsiclves.  (See  the  Did.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Publicani,  p.  806,  and 
DEYi.iN<rs  Oha.t.  Sac.  v.  1   p.  206.) 

♦  Gregory  the  Great  {Htnii.  34  in  Evang.) :  Arenti  corde  ipsum  Fontem  miseri- 
Gordia3  reprehendebant. 


302  THE  LOST  SHEEP.  ' 

As  anotlier  expression  of  their  discontent  (Luke  v.  30)  had  called 
out  those  blessed  words,  "  Those  that  are  whole  need  not  a  physician, 
I  but  they  that  are  sick ;  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to 
.  repentance ;"  so  their  later  murmurings  were  the  occasion  of  the  three 
parables  which  here  follow  one  another,  in  the  which  he  seeks  to  shame 
the  murmiirers  out  of  their  murmurs,  showing  them  how  little  sympathy 
those  murmurs  found  in  that  higher  heavenly  world  from  whence  he 
came.  He  holds  up  to  them  God  and  the  angels  of  Grod  rejoicing  at  the 
conversion  of  a  sinner,  and  silently  contrasts  this,  the  liberal  joy  and 
exultation  of  heaven,  with  the  narrow  discontent  and  envious  repinings 
that  found  place  in  their  hearts.  The  holy  inhabitants  of  heaven  did 
not  count  scorn  of  the  repentant  sinner,  but  welcomed  him  into  their 
fellowship  with  gladness.  Would  they  dare,  in  the  pride  of  their  legal 
righteousness,  and  of  their  exemption  from  some  gross  offences  whereof 
he  had  been  guilty,  refuse  to  receive  him,  keeping  him  at  a  distance,  as 
though  his  very  touch  would  defile  them  ? 

Nor  is  it  merely  that  there  is  joy  in  heaven  over  the  penitent  sinner, 
but  the  Lord  warns  them,  if  they  indulge  in  this  pride, — if  they  shut 
themselves  up  in  this  narrow  form  of  legal  righteousness, — there  will 
be  more  j^y  in  heaven  over  one  of  these  penitents  whom  they  so  much 
despised,  than  over  ninety-nine  of  such  as  themselves.  He  does  not 
deny  the  good  that  might  be  in  them  ;  many  of  them,  no  doubt,  had  a 
zeal  for  God, — were  following  after  righteousness  such  as  they  knew  it, 
a  righteousness  according  to  the  law.  But  if  now  that  a  higher  right- 
eousness was  brought  into  the  world, — a  righteousness  by  faith,  the  new 
life  of  the  Gospel, — they  obstinately  refused  to  become  partakers  of  this 
new  life,  preferring  to  serve  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter  instead  of  the 
newness  of  the  Spirit,  then  such  as  would  receive  this  life  from  him, 
though  having,  in  times  past,  departed  infinitely  wider  from  God  than 
they  had  ever  done,  yet  would  now  be  brought  infinitely  nearer  to  him, 
as  the  one  sheep  was  brought  home  to  the  Jiouse,  while  the  ninety  and 
nine  abode  in  the  wilderness, — as  for  the  prodigal  a  fatted  calf  was 
slain,  while  the  elder  brother  received  not  so  much  as  a  kid.  Nay,  in 
the  last  parable  they  are  bidden  to  beware  lest  the  spirit  they  are  now 
indulging  in.  if  allowed  further,  do  not  shut  them  out  altogether,  or  ra- 
ther, lest  tliey  do  not  through  it  exclude  themselves  altogether  from  that 
jew  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  the  Lord  was  establishing  upon  earth,  and  into  which  they,  as 
well  as  the  publicans  and  sinners,  wore  invited  freely  to  enter. 
/  Of  tlie  three  parables,  the  two  first,  those  of  the  Lost  Sheep  and  the 
'  Lost  Piece  of  Money,  set  forth  to  us  mainly  the  seeking  love  of  God ; 
while  the  third,  that  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  describes  to  us  rather  the  rise 
and  growth  responsive  to  that  love  of  repentance  in  the  heart  of  man. 


THE  LOST  SHEEP.  303 

It  is,  in  fact,  only  the  same  truth  presented  successively  under  different 
aspects,  God's  seeking  love  being  set  forth  first,  and  this  not  without 
reason,  since  we  thus  are  taught  that  all  first  motions  towards  good  are 
from  him,  that  grace  must  prevent  as  well  as  follow  us.  But  yet  is  it 
the  same  truth  in  all ;  for  it  is  the  confluence  of  this  drawing  and  seek- 
ing love  from  without,  and  of  the  faith  awakened  by  the  same  power 
from  within, — the  confluence  of  these  two  streams,  the  objective  grace 
and  tlie  subjective  faith. — out  of  which  repentance  springs.  The  para- 
bles in  this  chapter  would  have  seemed  incomplete  without  one  another, 
but  together  form  a  perfect  and  .harmonious  whole.  Separately  they 
would  have  seemed  incomplete,  for  the  two  first  speak  nothing  of  a 
changed  heart  and  mind  toward  God ;  nor,  indeed,  would  the  images  of 
a  sheep  and  piece  of  money  have  conveniently  allowed  this ;  while  the 
last  speaks  only  of  this  change,  and  nothing  of  that  which  must  have 
caused  it.  the  antecedent  working  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  heart,  the 
going  forth  of  his  power  and  love,  which  must  have  found  the  wanderer, 
before  he  could  ever  have  found  himself,  or  found  his  God.  We  may 
thus  contemplate  these  parables  under  the  aspect  of  a  trilogy,  which  yet 
again  is  to  be  divided  into  two  unequal  portions  of  two  and  one — St. 
Luke  himself  distinctly  marking  the  break  and  the  new  beginning 
which  finds  place  after  the  two  first. 

But  there  are  also  many  other  inner  harmonies  and  relations  be- 
tween them  which  are  interesting  to  observe  and  trace.  Thus  there  is 
a  seeming  anti-climax  in  the  numbers  named  in  the  successive  parables, 
which  is  in  reality  a  climax, — one  in  a  hundred* — one  in  ten, — one  in 
two ;  tlic  feeling  of  the  value  of  tlie  part  lost  would  naturally  increase 
with  the  proportion  which  it  bore  to  the  whole.  And  other  human  feel- 
ings and  interests  are  implied  in  the  successive  narratives,  which  would 
have  helped  to  enhance  in  each  successive  case  the  anxiety  for  the  re- 
covery of  what  was  lost.  The  possessor  of  a  hundred  sheep  must  have 
been  in  some  sort  a  rich  man,  therefore  not  likely  to  feel  the  loss  of  a 
single  one  out  of  his  flock,  so  deeply  as  the  woman  who,  having  but  ten 
small  pieces  of  money,  should  of  these  lose  one:  again  the  intensity  of 
her  feeling  would  come  infinitely  short  of  the  parental  affection  of  a 
father,  who,  having  but  two  sons,  should  behold  one  out  of  these  two 
go  astray.  Thus  we  find  ourselves  moving  in  ever  narrower  and  so 
ever  intenser  circles  of  hope  and  fear  and  love — drawing  in  each  suc- 
cessive parable  nearer  to  the  innermost  centre  and  heart  of  the  truth. 

*.Tliis  was  a  familiar  way  of  numbering  and  dividing  among  the  Jews,  of  which 
examph'S  are  given  by  Lightfoot  here.  There  is  also  a  striking  saying  attributed  to 
Mahomet,  in  which  the  .same  appears, — The  Lord  God  has  divided  mercy  and  pity 
into  a  hundred  parts  ;  of  these,  he  has  retained  ninety  and  nine  for  himself,  and 
Bent  one  upon  earth.     (Von  Hammer's  Fundgrubeii  d.  Orients,  v.  1,  p.  308.) 


304  THE  LOST  SHEEP. 

In  each  case  too  we  may  see  shadowed  forth  a  greater  guilt  and 
therefore  a  greater  grace.  In  the  first  parable  the  guilt  is  the  smallest. 
The  sinner  is  set  forth  under  the  image  of  a  silly  wandering  sheep. 
Though  this  is  but  one  side  of  the  truth,  yet  is  it  a  most  real  one,  that 
sin  is  oftentimes  an  ignorance ;  the  sinner  knows  not  what  he  does,  and 
if  in  one  aspect  he  defeferves  wrath,  in  another  claims  pity :  he  is  a  sheep 
that  has  gone  astray,  ere  it  knew  what  it  was  doing,  ere  it  had  even 
learned  that  it  had  a  shepherd,  that  it  belonged  to  a  fold.  So  is  it  with 
a  multitude  of  wanderers,  in  whom  all  this  knowledge  was  yet  latent. 
and  who  went  astray  before  ever  it  was  eflfectually  called  out.  But  there 
are  others,  set  forth  under  the  lost  money,  who  having  known  them- 
selves to  be  God's,  to  be  stamped  with  his  image,  the  image  of  the  Great 
King,  on  their  souls,  do  yet  throw  themselves  away,  renounce  their  high 
birth,  and  wilfully  lose  themselves  in  the  world.  Tlieir  sin  is  greater, 
but  there  is  a  sin  yet  greater  than  theirs  behind — the  sin  of  the  prodigal 
— to  have  known  something  of  the  love  of  God — to  have  known  some- 
thing of  him,  not  as  our  King  who  has  stamped  us  with  his  image,  but 
as  our  Father  in  whose  house  we  are,  and  yet  to  have  slighted  that 
love,  and  forsaken  that  house — this  is  the  crowning  guilt ;  and  yet  the 
grace  of  God  is  sufiicient  to  forgive  even  this  sin,*  and  to  bring  back 
such  a  wanderer  even  as  this  to  himself 

The  first  parable  of  the  series  had  a  peculiar  fitness  addressed  to  the 
spiritual  rulers  of  the  Jewish  people.  They  too  were  shepherds — con- 
tinually charged,  rebuked,  warned,  under  this  very  title  (Ezek.  xxxiv. ; 
Zech.  xi.  16),  under-shepherds  of  him  who  set  forth  his  own  watchful 
tenderness  for  his  people  under  the  same  image  (Isai.  xl.  11;  Jer. 
xxxi.  10;  Ezek.  xxxiv.  12;  xxxvii.  24;  Zech.  xiii.  7;  cf  Ps.  xxiii.  1; 
Ixxx.  1);  yet  now  were  they  finding  fault  with  Christ  for  doing  that 
very  thing  which  they  ought,  and  which  the  name  they  bore  should 
have  reminded  them  they  ought,  to  have  done.  Not  only  were  they 
themselves  no  seekers  of  the  lost,t  no  bringers  back  of  the  strayed,  but 
they  murmured  against  him,  the  Shepherd  of  Israel,  the  great  Shepherd 
of  the  sheep,  because  he  came  doing  in  his  own  person,  what  they  his 
deputies  so  long  had  neglected  to  do,  because  he  came  to  make  good 
what  they  had  marred. 

In  the  common  things  of  our  daily  experience,  a  sheep  which  could 
wander  away  from,  could  also  wander  back  to,  the  fold.  But  it  is  not 
so  with  a  sheep  of  God's  pasture :  this  could  lose,  but  it  could  not  find 


*  Bongel :  Ovis,  drachma,  Alius  perditus :  peccator  stupidus,  sui  planfe  nescius, 
sciens  et  vnluntarius. 

*  One  of  the  charges  against  the  false  shepherds,  Ezek.  xxxiv.  4,  is  just  this,  ri 
07roA&>A.J)s  o\)K  efTjTTjeroTe. 


THE  LOST  SHEEP.  305 

itself  again  ;  there  is  in  sin  a  centrifugal  tendency,  and  of  necessity  the 
wanderings  of  this  sheep  could  only  be  further  and  further  away. 
Therefore,  if  it  shall  be  found  at  all,  this  can  only  be  by  its  Shepherd 
going  to  seek  it;  without  this,  being  once  lost,  it  must  be  lost  for  ever.* 
It  might  at  first  sight  appear  as  though  the  Shepherd  were  caring  for  the 
bne  strayed,  at  the  expense  and  risk  of  all  the  others,  leaving  as  he  does 
the  other  "  ninety  and  nine  in  tJie  tvilderness."  But  it  need  hardly  be 
observed,  that  we  are  not  to  understand  of  '■'•the  u-i/denicss,^'  as  of  a 
sandy  or  rocky  desert,  without  herbage, — the  haunt  of  wild  beasts  or  of 
wandering  robber  hordes, — but  rather  as  wide-extended  grassy  plains, 
steppes  or  savannas,  called  desert  because  without  habitations  of  men, 
but  exactly  the  fittest  place  for  the  pasture  of  sheep.  Thus  we  read  in 
St.  John  (vi.  10)  that  there  was  much  grass  in  a  place  which  another 
Evangelist  calls  a  desert,  and  no  doubt  we  commonly  attach  to  "desert" 
or  "  wilderness,"  in  Scripture,  images  of  far  more  uniform  barrenness  and 
desolation  and  dreariness  than  the  reality  would  warrant.  Parts,  it  is 
true,  of  any  of  the  large  deserts  of  Palestine  or  Arabia,  are  as  dreary 
and  desolate  as  can  be  imagined,  though  quite  as  much  from  rock  as  from . 
sandy  levels — yet  we  learn  from  travellers,  that  on  the  whole  there  is  in 
those  deserts,  or  wildernesses,  much  greater  variety  of  scenery,  much 
more  to  refresh  the  eye.  much  larger  extents  of  fertile  or  at  least  grassy 
land,  than  is  commonly  supposed  ;t  so  that  the  residue  of  the  flock  are 

*  Augustine  presses  this  i)oint,  observing-  how,  though  nothing  is  said  of  the 
father  cither  sending  by  tlie  hand  of  anotlier  or  liimself  looking  for  the  prodigal 
son,  yet  wc  are  not  therefore  to  see  in  his  return,  in  his  "I  will  arise,"  an 
independent  resolution  of  the  sinner's  own,  but  rather  to  complete  that  parable 
from  this  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixxvii.  19) :  Redit  ovis  perdita,  non  tamen  in  viribus  suis, 
sed  in  humeris  reportata  pastoris.  quic  se  pcrdere  potuit,  dum  sponte  vagaretur,  se 
autem  invenire  non  potuit,  nee  omnio  invenirelur,  nisi  pastoris  niisericordi^  quaB- 
reretur.  Non  enim  et  ille  filius  ad  banc  ovem  non  pertinet,  qui  reversus  in  seme- 
tipsum  dixit,  Surgam  et  ibo  ad  patrcm  meum.  Occulta,  itaque  vocatione  et 
inspiratione  etiara  ipse  quaesitus  est  et  resuscitatus,  nonnisi  ab  illo  qui  vivificat 
omnia :  et  in-^entus,  h.  quo.  nisi  ab  illo  qui  perrexit  salvare  et  qu^rere  quod 
perierat  1 

t  This  is  the  admirable  description  of  a  late  traveller  in  the  East:  "  Stern  and 
monotonous  as  may  be  called  the  general  features  of  a  desert,  let  not  the  reader 
suppose  it  is  all  barren.  There  are  indeed  some  accursed  patches,  where  scores  of 
miles  lie  before  you,  like  a  tawny  Atlantic,  one  yellow  wave  rising  before  another. 
But  far  from  unfrequently  there  are  regions  of  wild  fertility,  where  the  earth 
shoots  forth  a  jungle  of  aromatic  shrubs,  and  most  delicious  are  the  sensations  con- 
veyed to  the  parched  European,  as  the  camel  treads  down  the  underwood  with  his 
broad  foot  and  scatters  to  the  winds  the  exhalations  of  a  thousand  herbs.  There 
are  otlicr  districts,  where  the  hard  and  compact  gravel  would  do  honor  to  a  lady's 
shrubbery:  in  these  regions  you  meet  with  dwarf  trees,  and  long  ridges  of  low  bare 
rocks,  of  fantastic  configuration,  along  whose  base  you  find  the  yellow  partridge 
and  the  black-eyed  gazelle." 
20 


306  THE  LOST  SHEEP. 

left  here  in  their  ordinary  pasturage,  while  the  shepherd  goes  after  that 
one  which  is  lost  till  he  finds  it. 

Christ's  Incarnation  was  a  girding  of  himself  to  go  after  his  lost 
sheep.  His  whole  life  upon  earth,  his  entire  walk  in  the  flesh,  was  a 
following  of  the  strayed  one  ;  for  in  his  own  words  he  was  come,  this  was 
the  very  purpose  of  his  coming,  namely,  "  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which 
was  lost."  And  he  sought  his  own  till  he  found  it.  He  was  not  weary 
with  the  greatness  of  the  way ;  he  shrank  not  when  the  thorns  wounded 
his  flesh,  and  tore  his  feet.  He  followed  us  into  the  deep  of  our  misery, 
came  under  the  extremity  of  our  malediction.  For  he  had  gone  forth  to 
seek  his  own  till  he  had  found  it^  and  would  not  pause  till  then.  And 
having  found,  how  tenderly  the  shepherd  handles  that  sheep  which  has 
cost  him  all  this  labor  and  fatigue :  he  does  not  punish  it ;  he  does  not 
smite,  nor  even  harshly  drive  it  back  to  the  fold :  nay,  he  does  not  de- 
liver it  to  a  servant,  but  he  lays  it  upon  his  own*  shoulders,  and  himself 
carefully  carries  it,  till  he  brings  it  to  the  fold.  In  this  last  circumstance 
we  recognize  an  image  of  the  sustaining  and  supporting  grace  of  Christ, 
which  does  not  cease  till  his  rescued  are  made  partakers  of  final  salvation. 
But  when  some  press  and  make  much  of  the  weariness  which  this  load 
must  have  caused  to  the  shepherd,  seeing  here  an  allusion  to  his  sufi"er- 
ings, "  who  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body,"t  upon  whom  were  laid  the 
iniquities  of  us  all,  this  seems  to  me  a  missing  here  of  the  true  signifi- 
cance. For  rather  the  words  "  till  he  find  it^^^  I  should  take  as  having 
told  the  whole  story  of  the  painfulness  of  his  way,  who  came  in  search  of 
his  lost  creature,  a  way  which  led  him,  as  he  would  not  cease  till  he 
found  his  own,  to  the  cross  and  to  the  grave ;  and  this  is  now  rather  the 

*  'EttI  tovs  H/Jiovs  eavTOv. 

f  Cajetan :  Impositio  ovis  in  humeros  redemptio  est  humani  generis  in  proprio 
corpore,  et  hoc  quia  sponte  fecit,  ideo  gaudens  describitur.  Melancthon  :  Est  in 
textu  suavis  signiticatio  inserta  passionis  Christ! :  ovem  inventam  ponit  in  humeros 
SUDS,  i.  e.  ipse  onus  nostrum  transfert  in  se  ipsum.  The  lines  of  Prur^'nitius  {^Hijmn. 
post  Jejim.)  have  much  beauty : — 

Hie  ovem  morbo  residem  gregique 
Perditam  sano,  male  dissipanlem 
Vellus  affixis  vepribus  per  hirtae 

Devia  silvze 
Impiger  pastor  revocat,  luplsque 
Gestat  exclusis,  humeros  gravatus; 
Inde  purgatam  revehens  aprico 

Reddit  ovili, 
Reddit  et  pratis  viridique  campo, 
Vibrat  impexis  ubi  nulla  lappis 
Spica,  nee  germen  sudibus  perarmat 

Carduus  horrens : 
Sed  frequens  palmis  nemus,  et  reflexa 
Veriiat  herbirum  coma,  turn  perennis 
Gurgitem  vivis  vitreum  fluentis 

Laurus  obumbrat. 


THE  LOST  SHEEP.  3O7 

story  of  his  triumphant  return*  to  heaven  with  the  trophies  that  he  had 
won,  the  spoil  that  he  had  delivered  from  the  lion's  jaws. 

And  as  the  man  reaching  home  summons  friends  and  neighbors  to 
be  sharers  in  hisf  joy,  as  they  had  been  sharers  in  his  anxiety,  for  he 
speaks  of  the  sheep  as  one  with  the  loss  of  which  they  were  acquainted 
and  had  sympathized,  so  Christ  declares  that  there  shall  be  joy  in  heaven 
on  the  occasion  of  one  sinner  repenting,  one  wandering  sheep  of  the 
heavenly  fold  brought  back  to  it  again — that  heaven  and  earth  form  but 
ono  kingdom,  being  bound  together  by  that  love  which  is  "  the  bond  of 
perfectness."  He  keeps  indeed  back,  as  far  as  any  distinct  declaration 
in  words  goes,  who  the  bringer  back  is,  but  since  he  is  justifying  his  own 
conduct  in  inviting  sinners  to  repentance,  lets  it  sufficiently  plainly  appear 
who  it  is,  that  it  is  even  himself,  who  returning  to  the  heavenly  places 
shall  cause  jubilee  there.  For  we  must  observe,  that  he  speaks  of  this 
joy  as  future,  as  one  hereafter  to  be — not  as  yet  does  he  contemplate  the 
occasion  of  this  joy  as  having  been  given,  since  not  as  yet  has  he  returned 
to  his  house,  not  as  yet  risen  and  ascended,  leading  captivity  captive,  and 
bringing  with  him  his  rescued  and  redeemed.  Nor  should  we  miss  the 
slight  yet  majestic  intimation  of  the  dignity  of  his  person  which  he  gives 
in  that  '■'■  I  say  unto  you^^ — I  who  know,  I  who,  when  I  tell  you  of  hea- 
venly things,  tell  you  of  mine  own,  of  things  which  I  have  seen  (John 
iii.  1 1) — I  say  to  you  that  this  joy  shall  be  in  heaven  on  the  recovery  of 
the  lost. 

Were  this  all  that  Christ  had  declared,  there  would  be  nothing  to 
perplex  us ;  but  he  declares  further,  that  there  is  not  merely  joy  over 
one  penitent,  but  more  joy  over  him  '■'■than  over  ninety  arid  nine  just 
persons  which  need  no  repentance!'''  Now  we  can  easily  understand,  how, 
among  men^  there  should  be  more  joy  for  a  small  portion  which  has  been 
endangered,  than  for  the  continued  secure  possession  of  a  much  larger 
portion :  we  might  say  with  Luther,  it  is  the  mother,  concentrating  for 
the  moment  all  her  aflFection  on  her  sick  child,  and  seeming  to  a  by- 
stander to  love  none  but  that  only,  and  rejoicing  at  that  one  child's 
recovery  more  than  at  the  uninterrupted  health  of  all  the  others.  Or  to 
use  Augustine's  beautiful  words,J  "  What  then  takes  place  in  the  soul, 

*  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  34  in  Evang.)  :  Inventa,  ove  ad  doranm  redit.  quia 
Pastor  nostor  rcparato  homine  ad  regniim  coelcste  rediit.  Bcngel :  Jesus  Christus 
planfe  in  asccnsionc  domum  rediit;  coelum  ejus  domus  est;  Joh.  xiv.  2. 

t  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  Si  in  Evatig.)  on  this  ''Rejoice  with  me"  has  a 
striking  remark :  Non  dicit,  Congratulamini  inventfe  ovi.  sed  mihi ;  quia  videlicit 
ejus  gandiiun  est  vita  nostra,  et  ciim  nos  ad  coehmi  reduciniur,  solemnitatem 
laetitia)  ejus  implenuis. 

^  Confessions,  b.  3,  c.  3.  I  have  taken  the  lilierty  of  using  liere  and  once  hcfor© 
the  noble  translation  of  the  Confessians,  published  in  the  Library  of  the  Fathers. 


308  THE  LOST  SHEEP. 

when  it  is  more  delighted  at  finding  or  recovering  the  things  it  loves, 
than  if  it  had  ever  had  them  ?  Yea,  and  other  things  witness  hereunto, 
and  all  things  are  full  of  witnesses,  crying  out,  '  So  it  is.'  The  conquer- 
ing commander  triumpheth  ;  yet  had  he  not  conquered,  unless  he  had 
fought,  and  the  more  peril  there  was  in  the  battle,  so  much  the  more  joy 
is  there  in  the  triumph.  The  storm  tosses  the  sailors,  threatens  ship- 
wreck ;  all  wax  pale  at  approaching  death ;  sky  and  sea  are  calmed,  and 
they  are  exceeding  joyed,  as  having  been  exceeding  afraid.  A  friend  is 
sick,  and  his  pulse  threatens  danger ;  all  who  long  for  his  recovery  are 
sick  in  mind  with  him.  He  is  restored,  though  as  yet  he  walks  not  with 
his  former  strength,  yet  there  is  such  joy  as  was  not  when  before  he 
walked  sound  and  strong."*  Yet  whence  arises  the  disproportionate 
joy  ?  clearly  from  the  unexpectedness  of  the  result,  from  the  temporary 
uncertainty  concerning  it.  But  nothing  of  the  kind  could  find  place 
with  God,  who  knows  the  end  from  the  beginning,  whose  joy  needs  not 
to  be  provoked  and  heightened  by  a  fear  going  before ;  nor  with  him 
need  the  earnest  love  for  the  one,  as  in  the  case  of  the  mother  and  her 
children,  throw  into  the  background,  even  for  the  moment,  the  love  and 
care  for  the  others — so  that  the  analogy  hardly  holds  good. 

And  yet  further,  there  being  said  to  be  any  "  icMch  need  no  repent- 
ance''' is  difficult,  since  the  prophet  says.  '■'■All  we  like  sheep  have  gone 
astray ;"  and  therefore  all  must  have  need  to  search  and  try  back  our 
ways :  nor  do  the  explanations  commonly  given  quite  remove  the  per- 
plexity, f  We  may  indeed  get  rid  both  of  this  difficulty  and  the  other, 
by  seeing  here  an  example  of  the  Lord's  severe  yet  loving  irony.  These 
ninety  and  nine,   not  needing  repentance,  would  then  be — like  those 

*  Thus  too  Bernard  says  {In  Cant.,  Serm.  29) :  Nescio  autem  quomodo  teneriiis 
mihi  adstricti  sunt  qui  post  increpatoria  et  per  increpatoria  tandem  convaluei'unt 
do  infirmitate,  qnkm  qui  fortes  ab  initio  permanserunt,  non  indigentes  istiusmodi 
mcdicamento. — words  which  are  the  more  valuable  for  the  illustration  of  the  text, 
as  spoken  with  no  immediate  reference  to  it. 

t  As  for  instance  that  by  Grotins :  Quibus  non  est  opus  de  toto  vitse  genere 
migrare ;  and  by  Calvin :  Nomen  poenitentise  specialiter  ad  eorum  conversionem 
rostringitur.  qui  penitus  k  Deo  aversi.  quasi  k  morte  in  vitam  resurgunt.  Nam 
alioqui  continua  in  totam  vitam  esse  debet  poenitentiae  meditatio ;  nee  quisquam 
ab  hkc  necessitate  cximitur,  quum  singulos  sua  vitia  ad  quotidianum  profectum 
sollicitent. — A  very  curious,  but  not  very  fortunate,  scheme  for  getting  rid  of  the 
difficulty  which  attends  the  words  "  who  need  no  rej)cnfance."  has  been  proposed  by 
some.  The  ninety-nine  just  signify  the  whole  unfallen  creation,  the  world  of  angels. 
"  These,"  says  Theophylact,  who  however  proposes  the  interpretation  not  as  his 
own  ((pafflu  rives),  "  the  good  Shei)herd  left  in  the  wilderness,  that  is,  in  the  higher 
heavenly  places,  for  heaven  is  this  wilderness,  being  sequestered  from  all  worldly 
tumult,  and  fulfilled  with  all  tranquillity  and  peace,"  and  came  to  seek  the  wan- 
dering and  lost  hnnian  nature.  The  interpretation  finds  more  favor  with  Hilary, 
Comm.in  Matth.,  xvHi.  10. 


THE  LOST  SHEEP.  309 

whole  who  need  not,  or  count  that  they  need  not,  a  physician, — self- 
righteous  persons,  persons  therefore  displeasing  in  the  eye  of  God,  and 
whose  present  life  could  naturally  cause  no  joy  in  heaven — so  that  it 
would  be  easy  to  understand  how  a  sinner's  conversion  would  cause 
more  joy  than  their  continuance  in  their  evil  state.  But  the  Lord  could 
hardly  have  meant  to  say  merely  this  ;  and  moreover,  the  whole  con- 
struction of  the  parables  is  against  such  an  explanation :  the  ninety  and 
nine  sheep  have  not  wandered,  the  nine  pieces  of  money  have  not  been 
lost,  the  elder  brother  has  7iot  left  his  father's  house.  The  one  view  of 
the  parables  which  affords  a  solution  of  the  difl&culties  appears  to  be 
this — that  we  understand  these  "  rigldcoiis'^  as  really  such,  but  also  that 
their  righteousness  is  merely  legal,  is  of  the  old  dispensation,  so  that  the 
least  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  greater  than  tlicy.  The  law  had  done 
a  part  of  its  work  for  them,  keeping  them  from  gross  positive  transgres- 
sions of  its  enactments,  and  thus  they  needed  not,  like  the  publicans 
and  sinners,  repentance  on  account  of  such ;  but  it  had  not  done  an- 
other part  of  its  work,  it  had  not  brought  them,  as  Grod  intended  it 
should,  to  a  conviction  of  sin,  it  had  not  prepared  them  to  receive 
Christ,  and  gladly  to  embrace  his  salvation.  The  publicans  and  sinners, 
though  by  another  path,  had  come  to  him  :  and  he  now  declares  that 
there  was  more  real  ground  of  joy  over  one  of  these,*  who  were  now 
entering  into  the  inner  sanctuary  of  faith,  than  over  ninety  and  nine  of 
themselves,  who  lingered  at  the  legal  vestibule,  refusing  to  go  fur- 
ther in.f 

*  Here  the  illustration  of  Gregory  the  Great  may  fairly  be  applied :  Dux  in 
prajlio  plus  eum  militera  diligit,  qui  post  fugam  conversus,  fortiter  hostem  premit, 
quJim  ilium  qui  nunquara  terga  praibuit  et  nuiiquam  aliquid  fortiter  gessit.  And 
Anselm  {Horn.  12)  :  Sunt  aliqui  justi,  qui  licet  justi  vivant  et  ab  illicitis  se  conti- 
neant,  magna  tamen  bona  nunquam  operantur.  Et  sunt  alii  qui  prius  seculariter 
et  criminos6  vixcrunt.  sed  postraodum  rcdeuntes  ad  cor  suum,  quia  se  illicit^  egisse 
considerant,  ex  ipso  suo  dolorc  compuncti,  inardescunt  ad  amorom  Dei,  seseque  in 
magnis  virtutibus  cxercent,  cuncta  etiam  difficilia  sancti  cortaminis  appetunt, 
omnia  mundi  blandimenta  derelincjuunt ;  ot  quia  se  errasse  a  Deo  conspiciunt,  damna 
praecedentia  lucri.s  sequentibus  recompensant. 

t  There  is  no  image  upon  which  the  early  Church  seems  to  have  dwelt  with 
greater  delight  than  this  of  Christ  as  the  good  Shepherd  bringing  home  his  lo.-; 
sheep.  "VVe  have  abundant  confirmation  of  this  in  the  very  many  gems,  seals, 
fragments  of  glass,  and  other  early  Christian  relics  which  have  reached  us,  on 
which  Christ  is  thus  i)ortrayed  as  bringing  back  a  lost  sheep  to  the  fold  upon  his 
shoulders.  From  a  ])assing  allusion  in  Tertullian  (De  Pccnit..  c.  7.  10).  we  learn 
that  it  was  in  .his  time  painted  on  the  chalice  of  the  Holy  Communion.  Christ 
appears  in  the  .same  character  of  the  Good  Shepherd  in  bas-reliefs  on  sarcopiiagi, 
and  paintings  in  the  catacombs — one  of  which  last  is  believed  to  be  as  early  as 
the  third  century.  Sometimes  there  are  other  sheep  at  his  feet,  generally  two, 
looking  up  with  apparent  pleasure  at  him  and  his  burden ;  in  his  right  hand  he 
most  oft«n  holds  the  seven-reeded  pipe  of  Pan,  the  attractions  of  divine  love,  with 


310  THE  LOST  SHEEP, 

his  left  he  steadies  the  burden  which  he  is  bearing  on  his  shoulders.  Some- 
times he  is  sitting  down,  as  if  weary  with  the  length  of  the  way.  And  it  is 
observable  that  this  representation  always  occupies  the  place  of  honor,  the  cen- 
tre of  the  vault  or  tomb.  In  Munter's  Sinnbilder  dcr  Alt.  Christ.,  v.  1,  pp.  60-65, 
there  are  various  details  on  the  subject,  and  many  copies  of  these  portraitures, 
which  are  interesting  specimens  of  early  Christian  art.  See  too  Bossio's  Rom. 
Stoterr.  pp.  339,  348,  349,  351,  373,  383,  387,  for  various  delineations  of  the  same, 
and  Didron's  Iconogr.  ChrHienne,  p.  346. 


XXIII. 
THE    LOST    PIECE    OF    MONEY. 

Luke  xv.  8-10. 

The  parable  which  has  just  gone  before,  has  naturally  anticipated  much 
that  might  have  been  said  upon  this,  and  yet  we  must  not  think  so  poorly 
of  our  Lord's  wisdom  as  a  speaker  of  parables,  as  to  conclude  them 
merely  identical.  It  would  be  against  all  analogy  of  preceding  parables 
to  presume  that  these  two  said  merely  the  same  thing,  twice  over.  The 
Pearl  and  the  Hid  Treasure,  the  Leaven  and  the  Mustard  Seed,  at  first 
sight  appear  the  same,  and  the  second  but  to  repeat  the  firtst,  and  yet,  as 
we  have  found,  on  closer  inspection  important  differences  reveal  them- 
selves ;  and  so  is  it  here.  If  the  shepherd  in  the  last  parable  was 
Christ,  the  woman  in  this  may,  perhaps,  be  the  Church  ;*  or  if  we  say 
that  by  her  is  signified  the  Divine  Wisdom,!  which  so  often  in  Proverbs 
is  described  as  seeking  the  salvation  of  men,  and  is  here  as  elsewhere 
set  forth  as  a  person  (Luke  xi.  49),  and  not  an  attribute,  this  will  be  no 
different  view.  For  rather  these  two  explanations  flow  into  one,  when 
we  keep  in  mind  how  the  Church  is  the  organ  in  and  through  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  seeks  for  the  lost,  and  how  only  as  the  Church  is  quickened 
and  informed  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  is  it  stirred  up  to  these  active  minis- 
tries of  love  for  the  seeking  and  saving  of  souls.  That  the  Church 
should  be  personified  as  a  woman  is  only  natural ;  nor  has  the  tliought 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a  motlwr  been  at  different  times  far  from  men's 
minds.|     Keeping  prominently  in  mind  then  that  it  is  only  the  Church, 

*  Ambrose:  Qui  sunt  isti,  pater,  pastor,  mulicr'?  nonne  Deus  pater,  Cliristus 
pastor,  mulier  Ecclesia  1 

t  Gregory  the  Great  {Huvi.  34  in  Evang.) ;  Ipse  etenim  Deus,  ipse  et  Dei  Sa- 
pientia. 

X  See  some  interesting  remarks  in  Jerome  (Comm.  in  Esai.  xl.  3,  p.  303)  ex- 
plaining and  justifying  this  language ;  wliilc  at  the  same  time  he  guards  with  say- 
ing :  In  (livinitate  nullus  est  scxus.  Christ  claims  too  for  himself  the  mother's 
heart  in  his  airecting  words,  Luke  xiii.  34. 


312  THE  LOST  PIECE  OF  MONEY. 

because  and  in  so  far  as  it  is  dwelt  in  by  the  Spirit,  which  appears  as 
the  woman  seeking  her  lost,  that  it  is  only  as  the  Spirit  says  "  Come," 
that  the  Bride  can  say  it.  we  shall  have  in  the  three  parables  the  three 
Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  albeit  not  in  their  order,  since  other  re- 
spects prevailed  to  give  the  parables  a  diflferent  succession.  Moreover, 
any  reluctance  to  accept  this  interpretation,  as  though  it  were  putting 
the  Church  too  near  upon  an  equality  with  its  Lord,  is  in  this  way  re- 
moved ;  and  besides,  if  we  do  find  in  this  parable  a  picture  of  the  Church 
carrying  forward  the  same  work  which  its  Lord  auspicated  and  com- 
menced, what  is  this  but  in  agreement  with  Christ's  own  words,  that  it 
should  do  the  same  works  that  he  did  and  greater — only,  however,  be- 
cause he  went  to  the  Father,  and  shedding  abroad  the  Holy  Ghost,  him- 
self carried  on  from  heaven  the  work  which  he  had  begun  in  his  own 
person  upon  earth  ? 

In  the  one  piece  of  money,*  which  the  woman  loses  out  of  her  ten, 
expositors,  both  ancient  and  modern,  have  delighted  to  trace  a  resem- 
blance to  the  human  soul,  which  was  originally  stamped  with  the  image 
and  superscription  of  the  great  Kingf  ("  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image"  Gen.  i.  27),  and  which  still  retains  traces  of  the  mint  from 
which  it  proceeded,  though  by  sin  the  image  has  been  nearly  effaced, 
and  the  superscription  has  well  nigh  become  illegible.^  Nor  is  this  all; 
as  the  piece  of  money  is  lost  for  all  useful  purposes  to  its  right  owner, 
so  man,  through  sin,  is  become  unprofitable,  and  worse  than  unprofitable, 
to  God,  who  has  not  from  him  that  service  which  is  due. 

But  as  the  woman  having  lost  her  piece  of  money,  will  "  light  a 
candle  and  sweeps  the  house^  and  seek  diligently  till  slie  find  it ;"  even 


*  In  the  original,  it  is  not  indefinitely  a  piece  of  money,  but  a  drachma,  the 
commonest  of  Greek  coins.  Except  during  a  part  of  the  Maccabtean  rule,  the 
Jews  never  coined  any  money  of  their  own.  The  Hcrodian  coins,  now  found  in 
collections,  were  rather  medals  struck  on  particular  occasions,  than  monej'. 

f  Thus  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxxxviii.) :  Sapientia  Dei  perdiderat  drach- 
raam.  Quid  est  Drachma  1  Numus  in  quo  numo  imago  erat  ipsius  Imperatoris 
nostri.  Compare  Ignatius  {Ad  Magn.,  c.  5),  though  he  refers  not  to  this  parable  : 
'EffTic  vofiiaixaTa  dvo,  h  fxev  0eoO,  &  Se  KSfff^ov,  Kol  '^Kuarov,  avrSiv  i^iov  x"pci'f'''^P« 
iiriKei/xevov  ex^'-  "'  '^'"'^c'Toi  rod  KSfffj-ov  tovtou,  oi  5e  TTiffrul  iv  ayaTrp  x^p°-KTrjpa  &eov 
TloTphs  5ia  'IrjcroD  KpiffTov. 

ij:  It  is  true  that  against  this  view  it  may  be  said  that  the  Greek  drachma,  the 
coin  here  particularly  named,  had  not.  like  the  Roman  denarius  (Matt.  xxii.  20), 
the  image  and  superscription  of  the  emperor  upon  it,  but  commonly  some  image, 
as  of  an  owl,  or  tortoise,  or  head  of  Pallas. 

^  The  erroneous  reading,  evertit.  for  everrit,  prevailed  in  the  cojiies  of  the  Vul- 
gate during  the  middle  ages.  It  appears  as  early  as  Gregory  the  Grea,i  {Horn. 
84  hiEvang.'),  who  says:  Domus  evertitnr,  quum  consideratione  reatds  sui  humana 
conscientia  perturbatur.     And  Thauler's  interpretation  a  good  deal  turns  on  that 


THE  LOST  PIECE  OF  MONEY.  313 

so  the  Lord,  through  the  ministrations  of  his' Church,  gives  diligence  to 
i-ecover  the  lost  sinner, — to  bring  back  the  piece  of  money  that  was  lost 
to  the  treasury  of  God,  from  which  originally  it  issued.*  The  mean- 
ing which  the  Mystics  have  often  found  in  the  lighting  of  the  candle 
or  lamp,  namely,  that  there  is  an  allusion  here  to  the  mystery  of  the 
Incarnation — the  divine  glory  which  the  Saviour  had  within,  shining 
through  the  fleshly  covering  which  only  in  part  concealed  it.f — this  must 
of  course  give  way,  if  we  take  the  parable  as  I  propose.  Rather  the 
lighting  of  the  candle  must  be  explained  by  the  help  and  hints  of  such 
passages  as  these,  namely,  Matt.  v.  14,  15:  Phil.  ii.  15;  Ephes.  v.  13. 
The  candle  is  the  word  of  God  ; — this  candle  the  Church  holds  forth,  as 
she  has  and  exercises  a  ministry  of  the  AYord.  It  is  by  the  light  of  this 
Word  that  sinners  are  found — that  they  find  themselves,  that  the  Church 
finds  them. I  Having  this  candle  now  to  assist  her  in  her  search  she  pro- 
ceeds to  sweep  the  house,  which,  as  Bengel  well  remarks,  non  fit  sine 
pulvere.  What  a  deranging  of  the  house  for  a  time  !  how  does  the  dust 
which  had  been  allowed  to  settle  down  and  accumulate  begin  to  rise  and 
fly  about  in  every  direction ;  how  unwelcome  that  which  is  going  for- 
ward to  any  that  may  be  in  the  house  and  have  no  interest  in  the  finding 
of  that  which  has  been  lost.  Thus  it  is  with  the  word  of  God.  Ever- 
more the  charge  against  it  is.  that  it  turns  the  world  upside  down,  even 
as  indeed  it  does.  For  only  let  that  word  be  proclaimed,  and  how 
much  of  latent  aversion  to  the  truth  becomes  now  open  enmity ;  how 
much  of  torpid  alienation  against  God  is  changed  into  active  hostility ; 
•what  an  outcry  is  there  against  the  troublers  of  Israel,  against  the  wit- 
nesses that  torment  the  dwellers  upon  earth,  the  men  that  will  not  leave 
the  world  alone.     But  amid  all  this,  while  others  are  making  outcry 


very  word  :  Deus  hominom  quaerit,  domumque  ejus  penitus,  evertit,  quomodo  nos 
solomus.  aliquod  reciuirentes.  cuncta  evortere.  ct  loco  sue  moverc,  donee  invenire 
contingat  quod  quasrimus.     So  "Wiclif :    '  Turneth  up  so  down  the  house." 

*  II.  do  Sto.  Victore:  D"achma  reperitur.  dum  in  honiine  simiHtudo  eonditoris 
reparatnr;  and  Bernard  {De  Grat.  et  Lib.  Arb..  c.  10):  Adhuc  hie  foeda  et  deformis 
jacuissct  imago,  si  non  evangelica  ilia  mulier  lucernam  accendcrot,  id  est  Sajjientia 
in  carne  appareret,  overrcret  domum.  videlicet  vitiorum.  drachmam  suain  ro<|ireret 
qnam  iierdiderat ;  hoc  est  imaginem  suam.  qua)  nativo  spoliata  decore.  sul)  pelle 
peccati  sordens  tanifjuam  in  pulvere  latitabat:  inventam  tergerct.  et  tolleret  de 
regione  dissimilitudinis.  pristinam(|nc  in  speciem  reformatam,  similem  faceret 
illam  in  gloria,  sanctorum,  immo  sibi  ipsi  per  omnia  reddoret  quandoque  confor- 
mem.  cfim  illud  Scriptura}  videlicet  impleretur;  Scimus  quia  oilm  apparuerit, 
similes  ei  erimus ;  quoniam  videbimns  cum  sicuti  est. 

t  Thus  Cajetan :  Luccrna  accensa  mj'stcrinm  est  Incarnationis,  Vorbum  in 
carne,  tanrpiam  lux  in  testft,. 

X  So  Tertullian  {Dc  Pudic  c.  7):  Drachmam  ad  luccrna)  lumen  rcpcrtam,  quasi 
ad  Dei  verbum. 


314  THE  LOST  PIECE  OF  MONET. 

about  the  dust  and  inconvenience,  she  that  bears  the  candle  of  the  Lord 
is  diligently  looking  meanwhile  for  her  lost,  not  ceasing  her  labor, 
her  care,  her  diligence,  till  she  has  recovered  her  own  again. 

We  must  not  omit  to  remark  a  difference  between  this  parable  and 
the  preceding,  which  is  more  than  accidental.  In  that  the  shepherd 
went  to  look  for  his  lost  sheep  in  the  iviklerness ;  but  it  is  in  tJie  hmise 
that  this  piece  of  money  is  lost,  and  there  by  consequence  that  it  is 
sought  for.*  There  is  then  a  progress  from  that  parable  to  this.  The 
earthly  house,  the  visible  Church,  now  first  appears.  In  that  other  there 
was  the  returning  of  the  Son  to  the  heavenly  places,  but  in  this  there  is 
intimation  of  a  church  which  has  been  founded  upon  earth,  and  to  which 
also  sinners  are  restored.  And  there  are  other  slighter  variations  be- 
tween the  two  parables,  explicable  at  once  on  the  same  supposition  that 
we  have  there  the  more  immediate  ministry  of  Christ,  and  here  the  second- 
ary ministry  of  his  Church.  The  shepherd  says,  "  I  have  found  my 
sheep" — not  so  the  woman,  "  I  have  found  tJie  coin  " — for  it  is  in  no  sense 
hers  as  the  sheep  was  his.  He  says,  "which  was  lost:"  but  she,  "which 
/  lost,"  confessing  a  fault  and  carelessness  of  her  own,  which  was  the 
original  cause  of  the  loss — even  as  it  must  have  been  ;  for  a  sheep  strays 
of  itself,  but  a  piece  of  money  could  only  be  lost  by  a  certain  negligence 
on  the  part  of  such  as  should  have  kept  it. 

*  Origen  also  presses  the  fact  that  this  money  was  found  within  the  house,  and 
not  inthout  it,  though  with  a  different  purpose.  He  is  deahng  with  Gen.  xxvi.  18, 
to  which  lie  very  fairly  gives  a  deeper  and  allegorical  interpretation,  besides  that 
which  lay  on  the  surface,  namely  this, — that  those  stopped  wells  are  the  fountains 
of  eternal  life,  which  the  Philistines,  that  is,  Satan  and  sin,  had  choked,  but  which 
our  Isaac,  the  son  of  gladness,  opened  anew  for  us.  And  observing  that  such  wells, 
though  stopped  indeed,  are  within  every  one  of  us  (compare  John  iv.  14),  he 
brings  into  comparison  this  parable,  noting  that  the  lost  money  was  not  found 
without  the  house,  but  within  it :  for,  he  would  say,  at  the  bottom  of  every  man's 
soul  there  is  this  image  of  God,  mislaid  indeed  and  quite  out  of  sight,  overlaid 
with  a  thousand  other  images,  covered  with  dust  and  defilement,  but  which  still 
may  be  found,  and  in  his  hands  from  whom  it  first  came,  may  again  recover  its 
first  brightness,  and  the  sharpness  of  outline  which  it  had  at  the  beginning.  His 
words  are  {In  Gen.  Horn.  13) :  Mulier  ilia  quae  perdiderat  drachmam,  non  illam 
invenit  extrinsecus,  sed  in  domo  su9.  posteaquam  acccndit  lucernam,  et  mundavit 
domum  sordibus  et  immunditiis,  quas  longi  temporis  ignavia  et  hebetudo  conges- 
serat,  et  ibi  invenit  drachmam.  Et  tu  ergo,  si  accendas  lucernam  si  adhibeas  tibi 
illuminationem  Spirittis  Sancti,  et  in  lumine  ejus  videas  lumen,  invenies  intra  te 
drachmam.  Cilm  enim  faceret  hominem  ex  initio  Deus,  ad  imaginem  et  simili- 
tudinem  suam  fecit  eum ;  et  banc  imaginem  non  extrinsecus,  sed  intra  eum  col- 
locavit.  Hfec  in  te  videri  non  poterat,  donee  domus  tua  sordida  erat,  immunditiis 
et  ruderibus  repleta.  Iste  fons  scientite  intra  te  erat  situs,  sed  non  poterat 
fluere,  quia  Philistini  repleverant  eum  terra,  et  fecerant  in  te  imaginem  terreni. 
Sed  tu  port^sti  quidem  tunc  imaginem  terreni,  nunc  vero  his  auditis  ab  ilia  omni 
mole  et  oppressione  terrena,  per  Verbura  Dei  purgatus,  imaginem  coelestis  in  te 
Bplendescere  facito. 


THE  LOST  PIECE  OF  MONEY.  315 

The  woman  having  found  her  own,  "  calleth  her  friends  ami  her 
neighbors  togctlier^^^  that  they  may  be  sharers  in  her  joy.  (Compare 
Ruth  iv.  14,  17.)  It  is  only  natural  that,  according  to  the  groundwork 
of  the  parable,  this  being  a  woman,  the  friends  and  neighbors  she  sum- 
mons should  be  described  as  female  also,  though  this  escapes  us  in  the 
English  version.  That  they  are  so  does  not  hinder  us  in  applying  the 
words, — we  have  indeed  in  the  next  verse  the  Lord's  warrant  for  apply- 
ing them. — to  the  angels;  whose  place  we  shall  observe  is  not  "in  heaven" 
in  this  parable  which  it  was  in  the  last ;  for  this  is  the  rejoicing  together 
of  the  redeemed  and  elect  creation  upon  earth  at  the  repentance  of  a 
sinner.  The  angels  that  walk  up  and  down  the  earth,  that  are  present 
in  the  congregations  of  the  faithful,  oflFended  at  aught  unseemly  among 
them  (1  Cor.  xi.  10),  joying  to  behold  their  order,  but  most  of  all  joying 
when  a  sinner  is  converted, — there  shall  be  joy  before  them,  when  the 
Church  of  the  redeemed,  quickened  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  summons  them 
to  join  with  it  in  consenting  hymns  of  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  recov- 
ery of  a  lost  soul.  For  indeed  if  the  "sons  of  God"  shouted  for  joy  and 
sang  together  at  the  first  creation  (Job  xxxviii.  7),  how  much  more  when 
a  new  creation  has  found  place,  at  the  birth  of  a  soul  into  the  light  of 
everlasting  life  (Ephes.  iii.  10;  1  Pet.  i.  12);  for  according  to  that  ex- 
quisite word  of  St.  Bernard's,  the  tears  of  penitence  are  the  wine  of 
angels.*  and  their  conversion,  as  Luther  says,  causes  Te  Deums  among 
the  heavenly  host. 

*  Poenitentium  lacrymae,  vinum  Angelorum;  and  with  allusion  to  this  parable 
the  Christian  poet  sings : — 

Amissa  drachma  regio 
Recondiia  est  aerario  ; 
Et  gemma,  deterso  luto, 
Nitore  vincit  sidera. 


XXIV. 
THE    PRODIGAL    SON. 

Luke  xv.  11-32. 

We  have  now  come  to  a  parable  which,  if  it  be  permitted  to  compare 
things  divine  one  with  another,  we  might  call  the  pearl  and  crown  of  all 
the  parables  of  Scripture;  as  it  is  also  the  most  elaborate,  if  again  we 
might  venture  to  use  a  word,  which  has  an  evident  unfitness  when  ap- 
plied to  the  spontaneous  and  the  free,  but  which  yet  the  completeness  of 
all  the  minor  details  seems  to  suggest ; — one  too  containing  within  itself 
such  a  circle  of  doctrine  as  abundantly  to  justify  the  title  Evangelium 
in  Evangelio,  which  has  been  sometimes  given  it.  In  regard  of  its  great 
primary  application,  there  have  always  been  two  different  views  in  the 
I  Church.  There  are  those  who  have  seen  in  the  two  sons  the  Jew  and 
Gentile,  and  in  the  younger  son's  departure  from  his  father's  house,  the 
history  of  the  great  apostasy  of  the  Gentile  world,  in  his  return  its  recep- 
tion into  the  privileges  of  the  new  covenant ; — as  in  the  elder  brother  a 
lively  type  of  the  narrow-hearted  self-extolling  Jews,  who  grudged  that 
the  "sinners  of  the  Gentiles"  should  be  admitted  to  the  same  blessings 
as  themselves,  and  who  on  this  account  would  not  themselves  ^^go  in* 
Others,  again,  have  beheld  in  the  younger  son  a  pattern  of  all  those  who, 
whether  Jews  or  Gentiles,  whether  in  that  old  dispensation  which  was 
then  drawing  to  an  end,  or  brought  up  in  the  bosom  of  the  Christian 
Church,  have  widely  departed  from  God,  and  after  having  tasted  the 
misery  which  follows  upon  all  departure  from  him,  have  by  his  grace 
been  brought  back  to  him,  as  to  the  one  source  of  blessedness  and  life ; 
— ^while  they  in  the  elder  brother  have  seen  either  a  narrow  form  of  real 
righteousness,  or,  accepting  his  words  to  be  only  his  own  account  of  him- 
self, of  Pharisaical  self-righteousness, — one  righteous  in  his  own  sight, 
not  in  the  Lord's. 

They  who  maintain  this  last  explanation,  object  to  the  other  which 
makes  the  two  sons  to  represent  the  Jew  and  Gentile  (and  the  objection 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  317 

appears  decisive),  that  it  is  alien  to  the  scope  of  the  parable ;  for  that 
was  spoken  in  reply  to  the  murmunngs  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees 
(ver.  1,  2),  who  were  offended  that  Jesus  received  and  consorted  with 
publicans  and  sinners.  Before  that  interpretation  can  have  any  claim 
to  stand,  it  must  be  shown  that  these  publicans  and  sinners  were  hea- 
thens. Tertullian,  indeed,  boldly  asserts  that  the  publicans  were  ahaiys 
heathens ;  but  he  was  not  very  careful  what  he  asserted  when  he  had  a 
point  to  prove,  which  he  had  in  the  present  instance,  namely  this,  that 
no  encouragement  could  be  drawn  from  this  Scripture  for  the  receiving 
back  of  great  offenders  into  Church  communion.  But  there  is  abundant 
evidence,  some  Scriptural,  and  more  derived  from  other  sources,  that 
many  of  the  publicans,  probably  of  those  in  Judaja,  if  not  all,  yet  far  the 
greater  number,  were  of  Jewish  birth.  Zacchaeus  was  "  a  son  of  Abra- 
ham" (Luke  xix.  9),  and  Levi,  who  sat  at  the  receipt  of  customs,  must 
needs  have  been  so  too :  and  publicans  were  among  those  who  came  to 
the  baptism  of  John.  (Luke  vii.  29.*)  They  were  indeed  placed  by 
their  fellow-countrymen  on  a  level  with  heathens :  and  some  heathen 
publicans  even  within  the  limits  of  Judaea  there  ma}'  have  been,  but 
doubtless  these  whom  Jesus  received,  and  with  whom  he  consorted,  were 
publicans  of  Jewish  origin,  for  with  none  but  Jews  did  he  familiarly  live 
during  his  walk  upon  earth  ;  he  was  "  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  liouse  of  Israel ;"  and  John  xii.  30-22  shows  us  how.  unusual  a  thing 
it  was  for  him  to  break  through  this  rule.f 

*  Slh-  also  LionTFOOT.  Hor.  Hcb.,  on  Matt.  v.  46. 

t  Many  of  these  arguments  in  proof  that  tlie  publicans  of  the  New  Testament 
were  Jews,  arc  adduced  by  Jerome.  {Ep.  21,  ad  Daniasum.)  He  seems  lost  in 
wonder  (vehementcr  admiror)  at  the  audacity  of  TcrtiUlian's  assertion  to  the  con- 
trary. The  great  aim  of  the  latter  in  his  treatise  De  Pudicitia,  c.  7-9,  written 
after  lie  had  forsaken  the  Catholic  Church,  is  by  proving  that  contrary,  to  rob  the 
parable  of  all  the  encouragement  and  consolation  which  it  might  otherwise  afford 
to  the  ])enitent  sinner ;  and  in  his  passionate  eagerness  for  this,  he  does  not  pause  at 
a  small  n\atter  — for  instance,  he  declares  the  occasion  of  the  parable  to  have  been, 
quod  Phari.siei  nublicanoset  peccatores  c^A«/cw5  admittentem  Dominum  mussitabant. 
One  cannot  sufficiently  admire  his  bold  insertion  of  theethnicos,  nor  how  elsewhere 
{Adv.  Marr.  1.  4  c.  37  )  even  our  Lord's  declaration  that  Zacchaeus  was  '•  a  son  of 
Abraham.''  is  not  decisive  with  him  (Zacchajus  etsi.  allophylus  forlasse,  tamen 
aliqnft  iiotiti^  Scriiiturarum  ex  commorcio  Judaico  afflatus,)  nor  his  proof  from 
Deut.  xxiii.  18  that  no  Israelite  could  have  been  a  publican,  in  which  matter  it  is 
difficult  to  think  that  one  so  profoundly  skilled  in  all  Roman  antiquities  should  not 
have  known  better.  His  fear  is  lest  sinners  should  be  overbold  in  their  sin,  having 
hope,  like  the  prodigal,  to  find  favor  and  grace  whenever  they  will  return  to  their 
God;  and  he  asks  '  Who  will  fear  to  squander  what  he  can  afterwards  recover  1 
Who  will  care  always  to  keep  what  he  is  not  in  danger  of  always  losing  1"  But  if 
once,  leaving  the  ground  of  Scripture,  he  comes  to  arguments  of  this  sort,  we 
might  demand  in  return, — Is  it  on  calculations  of  this  sort  that  men  rush  into  sin  7 


318  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

These  "publicans  and  sinners"  then  were  Jews — outcasts  indeed  of 
the  nation,  scorned  and  despised,  and  till  the  words  of  Christ  had 
awakened  in  them  a  nobler  life,  no  doubt  deserving  all  or  nearly  all  the 
scorn  and  contempt  which  they  found.  The  parables  in  this  chapter  are 
spoken  to  justify  his  conduct  in  the  matter  of  receiving  them,  not  to 
unfold  another  and  far  deeper  mystery — that  of  the  calling  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, of  which  during  his  lifetime  he  gave  only  a  few  hints  even  to  his 
chosen  disciples,  and  which  for  long  after  was  a  difficulty  and  stumbling- 
block  even  to  them.  Much  more  would  it  now  have  been  an  offence  to 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees ;  to  them  therefore  he  would  not  needlessly 
have  opened  it,  least  of  all  at  a  time  when  he  was  seeking  to  reconcile 
them  to  his  dealings,  and  if  possible  to  win  them  also  for  his  kingdom. 
Both  these  reasons, — first,  that  the  parable  was  spoken  to  justify  his 
reception,  not  of  Gentiles,  but  of  Jews ;  and  secondly,  that  the  mystery 
of  the  Gentiles  as  fellow-heirs  with  the  Jews  in  the  covenant  of  promise, 
was  not  unfolded  till  a  later  period,  and  certainly  not  first  to  cavillers 
and  adversaries,  but  to  friends, — strongly  recommended  the  latter  as  the 
truer  interpretation.  Yet  will  not  the  other  therefore  be  rigorously  ex- 
cluded ;  for  the  parable  sets  forth  the  relations  of  men  to  God,  and 
wherever  those  relations  exist,  it  will  find  a  more  or  less  extensive  appli- 
cation. It  found  a  fulfilment,  though  not  its  primary  one.  in  the  rela- 
tions in  which  Jew  and  Gentile  stood  to  one  another  and  to  God.  Again, 
what  the  whole  Jewish  people  were  to  the  Gentile  world  in  respect  of 
superior  privileges  and  advantages,  in  respect  too  of  freedom  from  some 
of  its  worst  enormities,  that,  within  its  own  body,  were  the  scribes  and 

and  not  rather  because  they  believe  their  good  is  there,  and  not  in  God  1  And 
how  little  was  he  really  promoting  holiness  in  this  his  false  zeal  for  it :  for  if  there 
had  been  a  deeper  depth  of  sin  and  pollution,  into  that  no  doubt  the  prodigal 
would  have  sunk,  but  that  his  sure  faith  in  the  unchanging  love  of  his  father  ex- 
tricated him  both  from  the  sin  in  which  he  was,  and  that  yet  further  sin  into  which 
he  would  but  for  that  inevitably  have  fallen.  Tell  men  after  they  have  sinned 
grievously  that  there  is  for  them  no  hope  of  pardon,  or,  which  amounts  to  the  same 
thing,  give  them  only  a  dim,  distant,  uncertain  hope  of  it,  and  you  will  not  hinder  one 
by  all  these  precautions  and  warnings  from  squandering  his  goodly  heritage,  but 
you  may  hinder  ten  thousand  poor  miserable  sinners  that  have  discovered  the 
wretchedness  of  a  life  apart  from  God.  from  returning  to  their  Father's  house,  from 
throwing  themselves  on  the  riches  of  his  mercy,  and  henceforward  living,  not  to 
the  lusts  of  men,  but  to  the  will  of  God  :  and  every  one  of  these  that  is  thus  kept 
at  a  distance  will  inevitably  be  falling  from  bad  to  worse,  departing  wider  and 
wider  from  his  God.  It  is  worth  while  to  see  what  motives  to  repentance  Chrysos- 
tom  (Ad  Thcod.  Laps.,  1.  7)  draws  from  this  very  parable,  and  his  yet  more  memor- 
able words  {Dc  Pcc.nU.  Horn.  1.  4),  where  among  other  things  he  says, — ovtos  rolvvv 
6  vlhs  'elK6va  rSiv  fxtrd  rh  Kovrphv  <f>4p(i  ■iTe<T6vroov,  which  he  proceeds  to  prove.  Com- 
pare the  exposition  of  the  parable  by  St.  Ambrose  {De  Paiiit.,  1.  2,  c.  3)  agaiast 
the  Novatianists. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  3I9 

Pharisees  to  the  publicans  and  sinners,  so  that  here  too  it  found  its  ap- 
plication. And  not  less  within  the  Christian  Church, — however  wide 
may  have  been  the  sinner's  departure  from  God,  he  may  be  encouraged 
to  return  by  the  example  of  the  prodigal,  who  returning  found  yet  again 
a  place  in  his  father's  house,  and  in  his  father's  heart.  This  blessed  as- 
surance we  win  from  the  fact  that  it  was  sinners  xvitkin  tlie  covenant  to  9 
whom  the  Lord  had  regard  and  whom  he  portrayed  in  the  younger  son, 
not  sinners,  as  Tertullian  would  fain  have  us  believe,  without  it. 

Of  these  two  sons,  "  tlte  younger  said  to  his  father^  Give  me  the  por- 
tion of  goods  tJiat  fallcth  to  me."  Ilis  claiming  of  liis  share  in  this  tech- 
nical, and  almost  legal,  form*  is  a  delicate  touch,  characteristic  of  the 
entire  alienation  from  all  home  aifections  which  has  already  found  place 
in  his  heart.  It  is  apparently  too  as  a  right  that  he  claims  it.  not  as  a 
favor :  and  such  a  right  the  Lord  ma7j  mean  to  assume  that  he  had. 
Those  authors  indeed  who  have  brought  Oriental  customs  and  manners 
in  illustration  of  Scripture,  however  they  may  prove  such  a  right  or  cus- 
tom to  have  existed  among  some  nations  of  the  East,  for  example,  among 
the  Hindoos,  adduce  no  satisfactory  proof  of  its  having  been  in  force 
among  the  Jews.f  '  But  we  need  iwt  conceive  of  the  younger  son  as  ask- 
ing this  his  portion  of  goods  as  a  right — only  as  a  favor ;  "  That  portion 
which  will  hereafter  fall  to  me,  which  thou  designest  for  me  at  last,  I 
would  fain  receive  it  now."  This  portion,  according  to  the  Jewish  laws 
of  inheritance,  would  be  the  half  of  what  the  elder  brother  would  receive. 
(Deut.  xxi.  17.)  What  does  this  request  mean,  when  we  come  to  give  it 
its  spiritual  significance?  It  is  the  expression  of  man's  desire  to  be  ■ 
independent  of  God,  to  be  a  God  to  himself  (Gen.  iii.  5),  and  to  lay  out ' 
his  life  according  to  his  own  will  and  for  his  own  pleasure.  It  is  man 
growing  weary  of  living  upon  God  and  upon  his  fulness,  and  desiring  to 
take  the  ordering  of  his  life  into  his  own  hands,  and  believing  that  he 
can  be  a  fountain  of  blessedness  to  himself  |  All  the  subsequent  sins 
of  the  younger  son  are  included  in  this  one,  as  in  their  germ, — are  but 
the  unfolding  of  this,  the  sin  of  sins.     We  express  the  true  godly  feeling 

*  Tb  iwi^dWov  fx.fpos  ttjs  ouaias  =  ratam  hnBreditati.s  partem  ;  the  phrase  Hkc  so 
many  in  Luke  is  classical  and  hajjpily  selected;  it  is  of  no  rare  occurrence  in  good 
Greek  authors.     (See  Wktstein,  in  loc.) 

t  RosKNMULLER,  Altc  und  Neuc  Morgenl.,  v.  5,  p.  115.  There  is  reference  in- 
deed to  something  of  the  sort,  Gen.  xxv.  5,  6,  where  Abraham  in  his  lifetime  would 
seem  to  have  given  the  main  body  of  his  possessions  to  Isaac,  having  given  gifts 
also  to  the  sons  of  his  concubines,  evidently  their  portions ;  for  having  endowed 
them  with  these,  he  sent  them  away.  But  it  seems  there  recorded  as  something 
imusual — probably  a  wise  precaution  to  a\V'd  disputes  after  his  death. 

X  Bernard  observes,  that  it  is  a  sign  of  evil  augury,  when  this  son — bonum 
incipit  velle  dividcre,  quod  in  commune  dulciCis  possidetur,  et  habere  solus,  quod 
participatione  non  minuitur,  partitione  amittitur. 


320  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

which  is  directly  opposed  to  "  Give  fiie  m?/^JO?■^^o?^  ofgoods,'^  in  our  daily 
petition,  •'  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread :"  we  therein  acknowledge 
that  we  desire  to  wait  continually  upon  Grod  for  the  supply  of  our  needs, 
both  bodily  and  spiritual,  that  we  recognize  our  dependence  upon  hira 
as  our  true  blessedness.  In  the  earthly  relationship  which  supplies  the 
groundwork  of  the  parable,  the  fact  of  the  son  first  growing  weary  of 
receiving  from  his  fe,ther,  and  presently  altogether  quitting  his  father's 
house,  has  not  the  full  amount  of  guilt  which  it  has  in  the  heavenly: 
though,  indeed,  the  contempt,  or  slighting  of  the  earthly  relationship 
inevitably  brings  with  it  contempt,  or  slighting  of  the  heavenly ;  the 
former  being  constituted  to  lead  us  into  the  knowledge  of  the  blessings 
which  are  laid  up  in  the  other :  and  where  the  lower  is  despised,  the 
higher  will  inevitably  be  despised  also. 

The  father  ^^  divided  unto  them  his  living."*  It  would  have  little 
profited  to  retain  him  at  home  against  his  will,  who  had  already  in  heart 
become  strange  to  that  home  :  rather  he  will  let  the  young  man  discowr. 
by  bitter  experience,  the  folly  of  his  request.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  deal- 
ing of  God  :  he  has  constituted  man  a  spiritual  being,  that  is,  a  being 
with  a  will ;  and  when  his  service  no  longer  appears  to  man  a  perfect 
freedom,  and  man  promises  himself  liberty  elsewhere,  he  is  allowed  to 
make  the  trial,!  and  to  discover,  if  needs  be,  by  woful  experience,  that 
the  only  condition  of  his  freedom  is  his  cleaving  unto  God ;  that  depart- 
ing from  him,  he  inevitably  falls  under  the  horrible  bondage  of  his  own 
lusts  and  of  the  world,j:  and  under  the  tyranny  of  the  devil. 

And  now  the  younger  son  is  that  which  he  desired, 

"Lord  of  himself— that  heritage  of  woe," 

as  he,  too,  shall  shortly  find  it.  Yet  though  ,he  had  thus  craved  and 
obtained  his  portion,  it  was  not  till  after  a  few  days  that  he  left  his  home. 
St.  Bernard  sees  a  force  in  this  circumstance,  and  observes  how  the 
apostasy  of  the  heart  will  often  precede  the  apostasy  of  the  life  ]i^  that 
there  may  be  an  interval  between  them,  though  the  last  must  of  necessity 
sooner  or  later  follow  the  first.     The  sinner  is,  indeed,  pleasing  himself. 

*  T()j/  /3ioy  =  facultatcs ;  so  Mark  xii.  44  ;  Luke  viii.  43 ;  xxi.  4 ;  and  1  John  iii. 
17,  rhv  ^iov  Tov  K6fffxov.  There  is  this  use  of  the  word  in  Plato.  {De  Rep.,  1.  3,  p. 
228,  Stollbaum's  cd.) 

t  See  CHRY.sosTnM,  De  Panit.,  Horn.  1.  4. 

:j:  Augustine :  Si  haerehis  superiori,  calcabis  inferiora;  si  autem  recedas  h.  supe- 
riori  ista  tibi  in  supphcium  convertentur. 

^  De  Divers.,  Serm.  8 :  Est  autera  interim  homo  sub  se,  ciim  proprise  satisfaciens 
vohmtati.  nucdum  tamen  possidetur  h,  vitiis  et  peccatis.  Jam  hinc  vero  proficisci- 
tur  ad  rcgionem  longinquam,  qui  prius  quidem  separatus  erat,  sed  necdum  elonga- 
tus  Si  patre. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SOIST.  321 

but  the  divergence  of  his  will  and  tlie  will  of  God  does  not  immediately 
appear :  soon,  however,  it  must ;  and  thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  "  not 
many  clays,  after  the  yomiger  son  gatlicrcd  all  together^''  turned,  we  may 
suppose,  all  that  fell  to  his  share  into  ready  money,  or  into  valuables 
that  he  could  easily  carry  with  him,  '•'•and  took  his  journey  into  afar 
country. ^^  By  this  gathering  together  of  all  and  departing,  seems  inti- 
mated the  collecting,  on  man's  part,  of  all  his  energies  and  powers,  with 
the  deliberate  determination  of  getting,  through  their  help,  all  the  grati- 
fication he  can  out  of  the  world, — the  open  preference  of  the  creature  to 
the  Creator, — the  manifest  turning  of  the  back  upon  God.*  The  '■'•far 
country"  \8  a  world  where  God  is  not.f  There  he  "wasto/,"  or  scat- 
tered, '■•Ids  substance  icith  riotous  living" — so  quickly  has  the  gatlicring 
which  was  mentioned  but  now,  issued  in  a  scattering^  so  little  was  it  a 
gathering  that  deserved  the  name.  But  there  is  no  such  waster  as  the 
sinner. 

For  a  while,  it  may  be,  the  supplies  which  the  young  man  brought 
with  hira  into  that  far  land  lasted  ;  and  while  this  was  so,  he  may  have 
congratulated  himself,  and  counted  that  he  had  done  wisely  in  claiming^ 
liberty  for  himself  Even  so  the  sinner  for  a  while  may  flatter  himself 
that  he  is  doing  well  at  a  distance  from  God ;  he  discovers  not  all  at 
once  his  misery  and  poverty :  for  the  world  has  its  attractions,  and  the 
flesh  its  pleasures ;  his  affections  are  not  all  at  once  laid  waste,  nor  the 
sources  of  natural  delight  drawn  dry  in  an  instant.  But  this  is  the  end 
whereunto  he  is  more  or  less  rapidly  hastening.  The  time  arrives  when 
he  has  come  to  an  end  of  all  the  satisfaction  and  joy  which  the  creature 
can  give  him — for  it  was  not  as  a  springing  fountain,  but  a  scanty  cis- 
tern— and  then  it  fares  with  him  as  with  the  prodigal :  "  xvlicn  lie  had 
spent  all^  there  arose  a  mighty  famine  in  that  land^  and  Jie  began  to  be 
in  want."X  He,  too,  begins  to  discover  that  there  is  a  great  spiritual 
famine  in  the  land  where  he  has  chosen  to  dwell, — a  famine  of  truth  and 
love,  and  of  all  whereby  the  soul  of  man  indeed  lives ;  he  begins  to  dis- 
cover his  wretchedness  and  misery,'^  and  that  it  is  an  evil  thing,  and  a 

*  Cajetan :  Confidentia  in  omnibus  donis  naturje  et  gratire  animi  et  corporis,  est 
bonorum  congrcgatio. 

t  Augustine :  Regie  longinqua  oblivio  Dei  est.  Bedc :  Non  regionibus  long6 
est  quisque  a.  Deo,  sed  affectibus. 

I  Or  rather  "he  began  himself  to  be  in  want:"  the  ftimine  reached  even  to  him. 
The  Vulgate  lias  not  missed  the  force  of  the  uvr6s :  Et  ipse  cnepit  egere.  (See 
Winer's  Grammatik,  p.  142.) 

^  Ambrcse  {Exp.  in  Liic,  1.  7,  c.  215) :  Etenim  qui  recedit  k  verbo  Dei  esurit, 
quia  non  in  solo  pane  vivit  homo,  sed  in  omni  verbo  Dei :  qui  recedit  a.  fonte, 
sittit:  qui  recedit  Ji  thesauro,  egct:  qui  recedit  a.  sapientift.,  hebetatur:  qui  recedit 
h  virtute,  dissolvitur. 

21 


322  THE  PRODIGAL  SON". 

bitter,  to  have  forsaken  the  Lord  his  God.*  ( Jer.  ii.  19 ;  xvii.  5,  6.)  In 
the  spiritual  world  there  need  he  no  outward  distresses  or  calamities, 
though  often  there  will  be,  bringing  on  this  sense  of  famine.  A  man's 
outward  possessions,  supposing  him  to  have  such,  may  stand  in  their  ful- 
ness, may  go  on  abounding  more  and  more,  all  his  external  helps  to 
felicity  may  remain ;  while  yet  in  the  true  riches  he  may  have  run 
through  all,  and  may  be  commencing  "  to  he  in  leant}''  This  famine  sits 
down,  an  unbidden  guest,  at  rich  men's  tables,  finds  its  way  into  kings' 
palaces.  In  these  palaces,  at  those  feasts,  the  immortal  soul  may  be  fam- 
ishing, yea,  ready  to  '•'•perish  toitli  hungerP 

When  we  see  portrayed  in  this  parable  the  history  of  the  great  apos- 
tasy of  the  heathen  world  from  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true 
God,  as  well  as  the  departure  of  a  single  soul,t  this  wasting  of  goods  will 
be  exactly  that  which  St.  Paul  describes,  Rom.  i.  19-23,  as  the  remain- 
ing part  of  the  chapter  will  exactly  answer  to  the  prodigal's  joining  him- 

*  Thus,  when  a  great  English  poet,  with  every  thing  that  fortune,  and  rank, 
and  genius  could  give  him, — and  who  had  laid  out  his  whole  life  for  pleasure  and 
not  for  duty, — yet  before  he  had  reached  half  the  allotted  period  of  man,  already 
exclaimed, 

My  days  are  in  the  yellow  leaf, 

The  flowers,  the  fruits,  of  love  are  gone  ; 
The  worm,  the  canker,  and  the  grief 

Are  mine  alone — 

what  are  these  deeply  affecting  words,  hut  the  confession  of  one,  who  having  spent 
all,  had  found  himself  in  want  %  Or  again,  the  prodigal's  misery,  his  sense  of  the 
barrenness  of  sin,  find  a  yet  deeper  voice : — 

The  fire  that  on  my  bosom  preys, 

Is  lone  as  some  volcanic  isle ; 
No  torch  is  lighted  at  its  blaze, 

A  funeral  pile  ! 

f  "We  are  not  in  this  early  part  of  the  parable  expressly  told,  but  from  ver.  30 
we  infer,  that  he  consumed  "  with  harlots  "  the  living  which  he  had  gotten  from  his 
father.  This  too  suits  well,  when  we  see  here  the  history  of  the  world's  departure 
from  God,  since  in  the  deep  symbolical  language  of  Scripture  fornication  is  the 
standing  image  of  idolatry  ;  they  are,  in  fact,  ever  spoken  of  as  one  and  the  same 
sin,  considered  now  in  its  fleshly,  now  in  its  spiritual,  aspect.  (Jer.  iii. ;  Ezek.  xvi. 
xvii.)  And  as  much,  indeed,  is  implied  in  the  (S>v  aa-drws.,  living  dissolutely,  of 
ver.  13.  "AtrcoToj,  from  a  and  ffdCu,  as  one  who  thinks  he  need  not  spare,— that  he 
never  will  come  to  an  end  of  what  he  has.  Clemens  of  Alexandria  gives  it  a 
passive  signification,  &<T<eTos^&<ro>cTTos,  one  who  will  not  be  spared,  who  is  far 
from  salvation,  aco^ia^ai  fiv  Svva/xfvos  ^=  perditns  of  the  Latins;  so  Passow:  heillos, 
ohne  Rettung  verloren.  Cicero  has  latinized  the  word  (De  Mn  ,  2,  8),  and  uses  it 
of  tliose  given  to  prodigal  hixury  and  excess  at  the  table :  but  it  also  includes  the 
other  main  lusts  of  the  flesh ;  and  it  affirms  a  depth  of  moral  degradation,  a 
desperate  debauchery  (a(rciTais=  aiVxpiiy,  Hesychius),  which  it  may  be  questionable 
whether  our  translation  has  quite  renched.  See  Suicer,  s.  v.,  and  Deyling  {Obss. 
S(i£.,  V.  3,  p.  435). 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  323 

self  to  the  citizen  of  the  far  country,  and  seeking  to  fill  his  belly  with  the 
swines'  husks.  The  great  famine  of  that  heathen  world  was  at  its  height 
when  the  Son  of  God  came  in  the  flesh :  in  this  consisted  a  part,  though 
of  course,  only  a  part,  of  the  fulness  of  time, — the  fitness  of  that  time, 
above  all  other,  for  his  appearing.  The  glory  of  the  old  world  was  fast 
fading  and  perishing.  All  childlike  faith  in  the  old  religions  had  depart- 
ed. They  were  creeds  outworn,  unable  any  longer  to  nourish,  ever  so  f 
little,  the  spirit  of  man.  The  Greek  philosophy  had  completed  its  pos- 
sible circle,  but  it  had  found  no  answer  to  the  doubts  and  questionings 
which  tormented  humanity.  "  What  is  truth  ?"  this  was  the  i^uestion  I 
whicli  all  asked, — some,  indeed,  in  mockery,  some  in  despair. — some 
without  the  desire,  but  all  equally  without  the  expectation,  of  obtaining 
an  answer. 

When  in  this  fiimine,  the  prodigal  '•'■began  to  be  in  xvant^''  for  as  yet 
he  had  but  a  foretaste  of  his  coming  woe,  this,  no  doubt,  was  a  summons 
to  him  to  return  home.  But  as  yet  his  proud  heart  was  unsubdued,  his 
confidence  in  his  own  resources  not  altogether  exhausted.  The  first 
judgments  of  God  do  not  always  tame,  but  the  stricken  sinner  says,  like 
Ephraim,  "  The  bricks  are  fallen  down,  but  we  will  build  with  hewn 
stone ;  the  sycamores  are  cut  down,  but  we  will  change  them  into  ce- 
dars." (Isai.  ix.  10;  Jer.  v.  3;  Isai.  Ivii  10;  Amos  iv.  6-10.)  It 
was,  we  may  suppose,  in  such  a  spirit  as  this  that  "  he  went  and  jmned 
himself*  to  a  citizen  of  that  country, ^^ — "  fastened,"  or  '•  pinned  himself 
upon"  him,  as  Hammond  expresses  it,  hoping  to  repair  his  broken  for- 
tunes by  his  help.f  And  here,  no  doubt,  is  meant  to  be  set  forth  to  us  a 
deeper  depth  in  the  sinner's  downward  course  ;  a  fall  within  a  fall, — a 
more  entire  and  self-conscious  yielding  of  himself  in  heart  and  will  to 
the  service  of  the  world.  St.  Bernard |  understands  by  the  citizen  of 
the  far  country,  Satan  himself  or  one  of  his  angels.  "  That  citizen  I 
cannot  understand  as  other  than  one  of  the  malignant  spirits,  who  in  that 
they  sin  with  an  irremediable  obstinacy,  and  have  passed  into  a  perma- 
nent disposition  of  malice  and  wickedness,  are  no  longer  guests  and 
strangers,  but  citizens  and  abiders,  in  the  land  of  sin."     Yet  rather  I 

*  So  Ungcr :  eKoW-li^  contemtim,  se  obtrusit ;  he  thrust  himself  upon,— as  in 
Latin,  hjcrcre  or  adhjererc  is  often  used,  with  something  of  contempt,  of  an  inferior 
who  clings  to  some  superior,  through  whose  help  he  hopes  to  advance  his  fortunes, 
— and  see  Suicer,  s.  v.  KoWioixat.  But  there  is  no  contempt  necessarily  involved 
in  the  word.— it  is  not  in  the  cleaving  itself  but  in  the  unworthiness  of  the  person 
to  whom  he  cleaves,  that  the  contempt  lies:  in  proof  compare  Rom.  xii.  9,  with 
1  Cor.  vi.  IG. 

t  Theophylact:  ■irpoK6^as  r^  KaKla.. 

X  Dr  Dirrrs..  Stiu.  8.  So  also  Cajetan :  Subjecit  se  totalitcr  Bfemoni,  qui  ver6 
est  civis  regionis  peccati. 


324  THE  PRODIGAL  SON". 

should  say  that  by  the  term  "  citizen"  is  brought  out  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  prodigal  and  the  lord  to  whom  for  a  while  he  addicted  himself 
iHe  with  all  his  misery  was  not  a  -citizen"  but  a  stranger,  in  that  far 
land.  He  did  not  feel  himself  at  home,  nor  naturalize  himself  there. 
The  other  was  well  to  do ;  the  famine  had  not  touched  him ;  herein  how 
far  more  miserable  indeed,  though  he  knew  it  not,  than  he  who  "  began 
to  be  in  uxint"  For  there  is  hope  for  the  sinner  so  long  as  he  feels  him- 
self a  miserable  alien  in  the  land  of  sin :  his  case  is  becoming  hopeless, 
when  he  has  made  himself  '•  a  citizen''''  there,  when  he  is  troubled  with 
no  longings  after  a  lost  paradise,  after  a  better  land  that  he  has  left  be- 
hind. But  how  shall  we  understand  \s\%  joining  Imnself  io  the  citizen  of 
that  far  country  ?  The  sinner  sells  himself  to  the  world,  he  entangles 
himself  more  deeply  in  it.  Our  Lord  gives  us  a  hint  here  of  that  awful 
mystery  in  the  downward  progress  of  souls,  by  which  he  who  begins  by 
using  the  world  to  be  a  servant  to  minister  to  his  pleasures,  submits  in 
the  end  to  a  reversing  of  the  relationship  between  them,  so  that  the 
world  uses  him  as  its  drudge,  and  sin  as  its  slave.  He  becomes  cheap 
in  the  sight  of  that  very  world  for  the  sake  of  which  he  has  forfeited  all. 
Its  good  wine,  which  it  oflfered  him  at  the  first,  it  offers  him  no  more,  but 
now  that  he  has  well  drunk,  that  which  is  worse. 

It  was  small  help  that  the  young  man  found  from  the  new  master  on 
whom  he  had  thrust  himself  Sinful  man  finds  no  mercy  from  his  fellow- 
sinner,  no  love,  no  pity.  "  All  thy  lovers  have  forsaken  thee,"  this  is 
the  doom  of  each  soul  that  breaks  faith  with  its  heavenly  bridegroom. 
(Cf  Ezek.  xvi.  37  ;  xxiii.  22-25.)  This  new  master  cared  not  whether 
he  had  him  or  no — and  if  he  must  needs  engage  him,  who  so  crouches 
to  him  for  a  morsel  of  bread  (1  Sam.  ii.  36),  he  will  dismiss  him  out  of 
sight,  and  send  him  to  the  meanest  and  vilest  employment  which  he  has; 
"  He  sent  him  into  his  fields  to  feed  stvine."  We  might  easily  guess,  and 
indeed  we  know,  how  exceedingly  vile  and  degrading,  and  even  accursed, 
this  employment  was  esteemed  in  the  eyes  of  a  Jew  ;*  so  that  misery 
would  seem  to  have  come  upon  him  to  thq  uttermost.  And  now  "  he 
would  fain  have  filled  his  belly  ivith  the  husks]  that  tlte  swine  did  eat; 


*  See  Lightfoot's  Ho?-.  Heb.,  on  Matt.  viii.  30;  and  Geforer's  Urchristenthum, 
V.  1,  p.  115.  Herodotus  (1.  2.  c.  47)  describes  the  swineherds  as  the  only  persons 
who  were  excluded  from  the  temples  of  Eg^ypt. 

•f  These  Kepdna  are  not  the  husks  or  pods  of  some  other  fruit,  but  themselves 
the  fruit  of  the  carob  tree  (KepaTcoi/la).  of  which  there  is  a  good  account  in  Winer's 
Real.  Worterbuch,  s.  v.  Johannis  Brodtbaum.  This  name  of  St.  John's  bread  the 
tree  derives  from  the  tradition  that  the  Baptist  fed  upon  its  fruit  in  the  wilderness. 
I  have  seen  and  tasted  them  in  Calabria,  where  they  are  very  abundant,  and  being 
sold  at  a  very  low  jirice  are  sometimes  eaten  by  the  poorer  people,  but  are  mainly 
used  for  the  feedini'-  domestic  animals.    They  are  also  common  in  Spain,  and  still 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  325 

and  no  man  gave  unto  himP  Shall  we  understand  that  he  was  reduced 
80  low  as  to  look  with  a  longing  eye  upon  these  swine's  husks,  but  that 
a  share  even  of  these  which  he  distributed  to  them,  was  withholden  from 
himself? — '■'•  no  man  gave  u7ito  him"  of  these  ; — so  the  passage  is  gene- 
rally taken  *  But  seeing  they  must  have  been  in  his  power,t  it  seems 
preferable  to  understand  that  in  his  unscrupulous  hunger  he  was  glad 
to  fill  himself  with  these  husks,  a7ul  did  so,  no  man  giving  him  any  no- 
bler sustenance.  |  With  these  he  would  fain  have  •'•Jilled  his  belly ;  § 
— the  expression  is  chosen  of  design — all  he  could  hope  from  them  was 
just  this,  to  dull  his  gnawing  pain — not  that  he  should  with  them  truly 
satisfy  his  hunger,  for  the  food  of  beasts  could  not  appease  the  cravings 
of  man.  Thus  a  deepest  moral  truth  lies  under  the  words, — that  none 
but  God  can  satisfy  the  longing  of  an  immortal  soul, — that  as  the  heart 
was  made  for  him,  so  he  only  can  fill  it. 

The  whole  description  is  wonderful,  and  for  nothing  more  than  the 
evident  relation  in  which  his  punishment  stands  to  his  sin.  "  He  who 
"would  not,  as  a  son,  be  treated  liberally  by  his  father,  is  compelled  to  be 
the  servant  and  bondslave  of  a  foreign  master, — he  who  would  not  be 
ruled  by  God,  is -compelled  to  serve  the  devil. — he  who  would  not  abide 
in  his  father's  royal  palace,  is  sent  to  the  field  among  hinds, — he  who 
would  not  dwell  among  brethren  and  princes,  is  obliged  to  be  the  servant 
and  companion  of  brutes, — he  who  would  not  feed  on  the  bread  of  angels, 
petitions  in  his  hunger  for  the  husks  of  the  swine. "||     In  his  feeding  of 

more  so  on  the  northern  coasts  of  Africa,  and  in  the  Levant.  They  are  in  shape 
something  like  a  bean-pod,  though  larger,  and  curved  more  into  the  form  of  a 
sickle ;  thence  called  Kepdnov.  or  little  horn,  and  the  tree  sometimes  in  German, 
Bockshornbaum,  They  have  a  dark  hard  outside,  and  a  dull  sweet  taste,  hardly, 
I  think,  justifying  Pliny's  prcednkcs  siliquaj.  The  shell  or  pod  alone  is  eaten;  wine 
was  sometimes  expressed  from  it  in  ancient  times ;  Robinson  mentions  when  steep- 
ed in  water  they  atTord  a  pleasant  drink :  the  fruit  within  is  bitter  and  cast  aside. 
Maldonatus  gives  an  accurate  account  of  the  Kepdrtoy,  and  see  Pole's  Sy7iapsis  (in 
loo.)  and  Rosenmullkr's  Alte  und  New:  Murgenland,  v.  5,  p.  198. 

*  Thus  Luther  :  Und  niemand  gab  sie  ihm.  Bernard  {Dc  Convers.,  c.  8) :  Meri- 
t6  siliquas  esuriit,  et  non  accepit,  qui  porcos  pascere  maluit,  qu^m  paternis  epulis 
satiari. 

t  Calvin :  Significat  prae  fame  non  amplius  cogit^sse  veteres  delicias.  sed  avid(> 
vor&s.se  siliquas :  neque  enim  cilm  porcis  ipse  daret  hoc  cibi  genus,  carere  potuit. . . . 
Additur  ratio,  quia  ncnio  illl  dabat,  nam  copula  in  causalem  particulam,  meo  judicio, 
resolvi  debet. 

%  Or  the  words  koI  ouSfls  e5i5ow  avTcp  may  be  a  new  and  the  final  touch  in  the 
picture  of  his  misery,  and  express  generally  that  there  was  none  that  showed  any 
pity  upon  him. 

{)  Tfixiaai  rriv  KoiXiav.  Stella:  Ilomineni  non  satiant.  sed  ventrem  tantilni  gra- 
Tant;  and  Ambrose  {Erp.  in  Luc.  1.  7,  c.  227):  Cibus  .  .  .  quo  corpus  non  reflcitur 
sed  inipletur.     Augustine:  Pascebatur  de  siliquis,  non  satiabatur. 

II  Cor7i.  it  Lapide. 


326  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

swine,  what  a  picture  have  we  of  man  "  serving  divers  lusts  and  plea- 
sures,"— in  whom  the  divine  is  totally  obscured, — the  bestial  merely  pre- 
dominant. And  in  his  fruitless  attempt  to  fill  his  belly  with  the  husks, 
what  a  picture,  again,  of  man  seeking  through  the  unlimited  gratification 
of  his  appetites,  to  appease  the  fierce  hunger  of  his  soul.  But  in  vain, 
for  still  "  he  enlarges  his  desire  as  hell,  and  is  as  death,  and  cannot  be 
satisfied :"  since  as  well  might  one  hope  to  quench  a  fire  by  adding  fuel 
to  it,  as  to  slake  desire  by  gratifying  it.*  (Ezek.  xvi.  28,  29.)  And 
the  further  misery  is  that  the  power  of  sinful  gratifications  to  stay  that 
hunger  even  for  the  moment,  is  ever  diminishing, — the  pleasure  which  is 
even  hoped  for  from  them  vstill  growing  fainter,  and  yet  the  goad  behind, 
urging  to  seek  that  pleasure,  still  becoming  fiercer, — the  sense  of  the  horri- 
ble nature  of  the  bondage  ever  increasing,  with  the  power  of  throwing  off 
that  bondage  ever  diminishing.!  All  the  monstrous  luxuries  and  fran- 
tic wickednesses  which  we  read  of  in  the  later  Roman  history,  at  that 
close  of  the  world's  Pagan  epoch,  stand  there  like  the  last  despairing 
effort  of  man  to  fill  his  belly  with  the  husks.  J  The  attempt  by  her  em- 
perors was  carried  out  under  all  the  most  favorable  circumstances  of 
wealth  and  power,  for,  in  Solomon's  words,  '•  what  can  the  man  do  that 
Cometh  after  the  king?"  In  this  light  we  may  behold  the  incredibly 
sumptuous  feasts. — the  golden  palaces, — the  enormous  shows  and  specta- 
cles,— and  all  the  pomp  and  pride  of  life  carried  to  the  uttermost.i^ — the 
sins  of  nature,  and  the  sins  below  nature ;  while  yet  from  amidst  all 
these  the  voice  of  man's  misery  only  made  itself  the  louder  heard.  The 
experiment  carried  out  on  this  largest  scale,  only  caused  the  failure  to  be 
more  signal,  only  proved  the  more  plainly  that  of  the  food  of  beasts  there 
could  not  be  made  the  nourishment  of  men. 


*  Jerome  {Ad  Dam.,  Ep.  21,  c.  13) :  Non  poterat,  saturari  quia  semper  voluptas 
famem  sui  habet,  et  transacta  non  satiat :  and  Bernard,  though  elsewhere  he  has 
affirmed  the  other,  yet  brings  out  thi.s  interpretation  also  on -its  ethical  side  (De 
COTiytT5.,  c.  14):  Neque  enim  parit  hanc  [satietateni]  copia  sed  contemptus.  Sic 
fatui  ftlii  Adam,  porcorum  vorando  siliquas,  non  esurientes  animas  sed  csuriem 
ipsam  pascitis  animarum.  Sola  nimirum  hoc  edulio  inedia  vestra  nutritur,  sola 
fames  alitur  cibo  innaturali. 

f  Cajetan :  Quieto  siquidem  dominio  jam  possidentes  Da?mones  hominem,  in- 
vident  illi  satictatem  appetites,  quam  tamen  procurabant  quosque  ilium  plenfe  sibi 
subjccerunt.  Compare  a  passage  from  the  Tabula  of  Cebes,  quoted  by  Mr.  Gres- 
well.     {Exp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  3,  p.  586.) 

:j:  The  explanation  which  Augustine  gives  is  not  virtually  different  from  this. 
The  husks  he  explains :  Scculares  doctrinae  steriles,  vanitate  resonantes ;  such  as 
had  been  to  himself  once  his  own  Manichaean  figments.  Compare  Jerome  {Ad 
Dam.,  Ep.  21.  c.  13).  and  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  :  Sordida  figmenta  poetarum,  et  di- 
versis  erroribus  polluta  dogmata  philosophorum. 

^  See,  for  instance,  Suetonius,  Caligula,  c.  19.  37. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  327 

It  might  be  here,  perhaps,  said,  tliat  the  picture  drawn  in  the  para- 
ble, if  it  be  applied  to  more  than  a  very  few,  the  deepest  sunk  in  depra- 
vity, is  an  exaggeration  both  of  the  misery  and  also  of  the  wickedness 
even  of  those  who  have  turned  their  backs  upon  God ;  that,  in  the  most 
corrupted  times,  not  all,  and  in  more  moral  epochs  only  a  few  even  of 
these,  fall  so  low  in  wretchedness  and  guilt.  This  is  true,  yet  all  might 
thus  fall.  By  the  first  departure  from  God,  all  this  misery,  and  all  this 
sin,  are  rendered  possible — all  are  its  legitimate  results  ;  there  is  nothing 
to  hinder  them  from  following,  except  the  mercy  and  restraining  grace 
of  God,  who  does  not  suffer  sin,  in  all  cases,  to  bear  all  the  bitter  fruit 
which  it  might,  and  which  arc  implicitly  contained  in  it.  In  the  pre- 
sent case,  it  is  suffered  to  bear  all  its  bitter  fruit :  we  have  one  who  has 
done  "  evil  with  both  hands  earnestly,"  and  debased  himself  even  unto 
hell ;  and  the  parable  would  be  incomplete  without  this,  it  would  not 
be  a  parable  for  all  sinners,  since  it  would  fail  to  show,  that  there  is 
no  extent  of  departure  from  God,  which  renders  a  return  to  him  impos- 
sible. 

Hitherto  we  have  followed  the  sinner  step  by  step  in  a  career,  which 
is  ever  carrying  him  further  and  further  from  his  God.  Another  task 
remains — to  trace  the  steps  of  his  return,  from  the  first  beginnings  of 
repentance  to  his  full  reinvestment  in  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  a 
son.  For  though  he  has  forsaken  his  God,  he  has  not  been  forsaken  by 
him — no  not  even  in  that  far  land ;  for  the  misery  which  has  fallen  upon 
him  there  is  indeed  an  expression  of  God's  anger  against  sin,  but  at  the 
same  time  of  his  love  to  the  sinner.  He  hedges  up  his  way  with  thorns, 
that  he  may  not  find  his  paths  (Hos.  ii.  6) ;  he  makes  his  sin  bitter  to 
him,  that  he  may  leave  it.  In  this  way  God  pursues  his  fugitives,  sum- 
moning them  back  in  that  onl}'  language  wliicli  now  they  will  under- 
stand.* He  allows  the  world  to  make  its  bondage  hard  to  them,  that 
they  may  know  the  difference  between  his  service,  and  the  service  of 
the  kings  of  the  countries  (2  Chron.  xii.  8),  that  those  whom  he  is  about 
to  deliver  may  cry  to  him  by  reason  of  the  bitter  bondage,  and  in  that 
cry  give  him  something  that  he  may  take  hold  of  (Deut.  iv.  29-31  ; 
2  Chron.  xxxiii.  11-13.)  Here  we  have  one  upon  whom  this  severe 
but  loving  discipline  is  not  wasted. f  Presently,  '•'•  lie  canie  to  himself V\ 
How  full  of  consolation  for  man,  how  deeply  significant  are  these  words, 
"/«€  came  to  himself  ^^ — so  that  to  come  to  one's  self  and  to  come  to  God, 


*  Augustine.  Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxxxviii.  3,  4. 

t  Augustine :  Divinae  mi.sericordia!  scvera  disciplina. 

:j:  IIow  remarkable  a  parallel  the  words  of  Seneca  {Ep.  53)  supply:  Quarc  vitia 
sua  nemo  confitetur  1  quia  etiam  nunc  in  illis  est.  Somnium  narrare,  vii^ilantis  est, 
et  vitia  sua  conliteri,  sanitutis  indicium. 


328  THE  PRODIGAL  SON". 

are  one  and  the  same  thing.  He  being  the  true  ground  of  our  being, 
when  we  find  ourselves  we  find  him  ;  or  rather,  because  we  have  found 
him,  we  find  ourselves  also.*  It  is  not  then  the  man  living  in  union 
with  God  who  is  raised  above  the  true  condition  of  humanity,  but  the 
man  not  so  living,  who  has  fallen  out  of  and  fallen  below  that  con- 
dition. 

When  he  thus  '•'■came  to  himself^  he  said^  Hoivtnany  hired  servants  oj 
tny  fathcfs  have  bread  enough  and  to  spare,  and  1  perish  with  htmgerP 
This  too  is  a  touch  of  the  deepest  nature ;  for  there  is  nothing  that  so 
causes  the  sinner  to  feel  the  discord  which  he  has  introduced  into  his 
innermost  being,  as  to  compare  himself  with  all  things  around  and  be- 
neath him.  He  sees  the  happy  animals  undisturbed  with  his  longings, 
unable  to  stain  themselves  with  his  sins ;  he  beholds  all  nature  calm  and 
at  rest,  and  fulfilling  in  law  and  in  order  the  purposes  for  which  it  was 
ordained.  Every  where,  peace  and  joy — he  only  condemned  the  mean- 
while 

"  To  be  a  jarring  and  dissonant  thing 
Amid  this  general  dance  and  minstrelsy." 

He  sees  also  many  of  his  fellow-men,  who  without  any  very  lofty  views 
concerning  living  to  the  glory  of  God, — without  any  very  lively  affec- 
tions towards  him,  do  yet  find  their  satisfaction  in  the  discharge  of  their 
daily  duties,  who,  though  they  do  his  work  rather  in  the  spirit  of  ser- 
vants than  of  sons,  rather  looking  to  their  hire  than  out  of  the  free  im- 
pulse of  love,  are  yet  not  without  their  reward.  It  is  true,  they  may 
not  have  the  highest  joy  of  his  salvation,  or  consolations  of  his  grace, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  far  from  the  misery  and  destitution  into 
which  he  has  sunk.  They  at  least  have  bread  enough  and  to  spare : 
while  he  is  tormented  with  the  fierce  hunger  of  desires  which  are  ever 
craving,  but  which  can  never  be  satisfied.! 

Comparing  his  state  with  theirs,  what  does  the  prodigal  determine 
now?  How  many,  even  at  this  point,  do  not  determine  as  he  does. 
They  betake  them  to  some  other  citizen  of  that  far  country,  who  pro- 
mises them  a  little  better  fare  or  less  contemptuous  treatment.     Or  it 

*  See  Augustine,  Scrm.  96,  c.  2. 

t  This,  in  the  main,  is  the  interpretation  of  these  words  by  the  Fathers.  See 
Jerome  {Ad  Dam.,  Ep.  21,  e.  14),  Ambrose  {Exp.  in  Lmc.,  1.  7,  c.  220),  and  Bernard 
{De  Divers.  Serm  8) :  Quis  enim  peccati  consnetndine  obligatus,  non  se  felicem 
reputaret,  si  datum  esset  ei  esse  tanqviam  imum  ex  his,  quos  in  seciilo  tepidos 
videt,  viventes  sine  crimine,  minimfe  tanien  quierentes  qure  snrsum  sunt,  sed  quae 
super  terram  1  In  proof  that  this  distinction  between  the  filial  and  the  servile 
work  was  clearly  recognized  among  the  Jews,  see  Schoettgen's  Uor.  Hcb.,  v.  1, 
pp.  2G0,  532. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  329 

may  be  they  learn  to  dress  their  husks,  so  that  they  shall  look  like  hu- 
man food,  and  they  then  deny  that  they  are  the  fodder  of  swine.  Or 
glorying  in  their  shame,  and  wallowing  m  the  same  sty  with  the  beasts 
they  feed,  they  proclaim  that  there  was  never  intended  to  be  any  diflFer- 
ence  between  the  food  of  men  and  of  swine.  But  it  is  otherwise  with  him. 
•'■  I  will  arise."*  We  may  picture  him  to  ourselves  as  having  sat  long 
upon  the  ground,  revolving  the  extreme  misery  of  his  condition — for  the 
earth  becomes  the  natural  throne  of  the  utterly  desolate.  (Job  ii.  8,  13.) 
But  now  he  gathers  up  anew  his  prostrate  energies,  is  a  bettei  hope 
wakens  in  his  bosom;  "Why  sit  I  here  among  the  swine?  I  imll 
arise  and  go  to  my  father."  These  words  the  Pelagians  of  old  ad- 
duced, in  proof  that  man  could  turn  to  God  in  his  own  strength,! — 
that  he  needed  not  a  drawing  from  above,  that  the  good  thought  was 
his  own ;  just  as  the  (self-styled)  Unitarians  of  modern  times  find 
in  the  circumstances  of  the  prodigal's  return,  a  proof  that  the  sin- 
ner's repentance  alone  is  sufficient  to  reconcile  him  with  his  God, — 
that  he  needs  not  a  Mediator  and  Sacrifice.  But  these  conclusions  are 
sufficiently  guarded  against  by  inimmerablo  clearest  declarations,  the 
first  by  such  as  John  vi.  44 ;  the  second  by  such  passages  as  Heb.  x.  19- 
22 ;  nor  are  we  to  expect  that  every  passage  in  Scripture  is  to  contain 
the  whole  circle  of  Christian  doctrine,  but  the  different  portions  of  truths 
being  gathered  by  the  Church  out  of  the  different  parts  of  Scripture,  are 
by  her  presented  to  her  children  in  their  due  proportions  and  entire 
completeness. 

Returning  to  that  father,  he  '■'■toiU  say  unto  him,  Father," — for  as 
that  relation  was  one  which  his  obedience  has  not  constituted,  so  his 
disobedience  could  not  annul.  And  what  is  it  that  gives  the  sinner  now 
a  sure  ground  of  confidence,  that  returning  to  God  he  shall  not  be 
repelled  or  cast  out?  The  adoption  of  sonship,  which  he  received  in 
Christ  Jesus  at  his  baptism,  and  his  faith  that  the  gifts  and  calling  of 
God  are  on  his  part  without  repentance  or  recall.  For  the  recollection 
of  his  baptism  is  not  to  him  as  a  menacing  angel,  keeping  with  a  fiery 
sword  the  gates  of  that  Paradise  which  he  has  forfeited,  and  to  which  he 
now  vainly  desires  admission  again  ;  but  there  he  finds  consolation  and 
strength  ; — he  too,  wretched  and  degraded  though  he  be,  may  yet  take 
that  dearest  name  of  Father  on  his  lips,  and  claim  anew  his  admission 
into  the  household  of  faith,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  once  made  a  mem- 
ber thereof,  and  that  his  privileges  abide  for  him  still  in  their  full  force, 

*  Augu.stine :  Surgam,  dixit — sederat  enim. 

t  But  Augustine  says  in  reply  {Ep.  186) :  Quam  cogitationcm  bonam  qiiando 
haberet,  nisi  et  ipsam  illi  in  occulto  Pater  misericordissimus  inspirftssetl  Cf. 
Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixxvii.  39. 


330  THE  PRODIGAL  SON, 

however  he  may  have  chosen  to  remain  in  guilty  ignorance  of  them  for 
so  long.  "  I  have  siniied  against  heaven  and  before  thee ;"  he  recognizes 
his  offence  to  have  been  committed  not  merely  against  man,  but  against 
heaven,  or  against  God :  he  shows  his  repentance  to  have  been  divinely 
wrought,  a  work  of  the  Spirit,  in  that  he  acknowledges  his  sin  in  its 
root,  as  a  transgression  of  the  divine  law,  as  exceedingly  sinful,  being 
wrought  against  God.  Thus  David,  when  he  exclaims,  "  Against  thee, 
thee  only  have  I  sinned ;"  while  yet  his  offences  had  been  against  the 
second  table.  For  we  may  injure  ourselves  by  our  evil,  we  may  wrong 
our  neighborj  but  strictly  speaking,  we  can  sin  only  against  God ;  and 
the  recognition  of  our  evil  as  first  and  chiefly  an  offence  against  him,  is 
of  the  essence  of  all  true  repentance-,  and  distinguishes  it  broadly  from 
many  other  kinds  of  sorrow  which  may  follow  on  evil  deeds.  When  we 
come  to  give  these  words  their  higher  application,  the  two  acknowledg- 
ments, "  1  have  sinned  against  heaven^  and  before  thee,'''  merge  into  one, 
"  I  have  sinned  against  thee,  my  Father  in  heaven."  Not  here  alone, 
but  throughout  all  Scripture,  this  willingness  to  confess  is  ever  noted  as 
a  sign  of  a  true  repentance  begun,  even  as  the  sinner's  refusal  to  humble 
himself  in  confession  before  God,  is  the  sure  note  of  a  continued  obdura- 
cy. (2  Sam.  xii.  13;  Job  ix.  20;  xxxi.  33;  xxxiii.  27;  Prov.  xxviii. 
vf  ,  13  ;  Jer.  ii.  35  ;  xvi.  10  ;  Hos.  xiv.  2  ;  1  John  i.  9,  10.)  In  Augustine's 
words,  "He  shows  himself  worthy,  in  that  he  confesses  himself  un- 
I  worthy."* 

With  this  deep  feeling  of  his  unworthiness,  he  will  confess  that  he 
has  justly  forfeited  all  which  once  was  his  :  "  lam  no  more  worthy  to  be 
called  thy  son?''  This  is  well,  and  a  confession  such  as  this  belongs  to 
the  essence  of  all  true  repentance.  But  the  words  that  follow,!  "  Make 
me  as  one  of  tliy  hired  servants^''  are  these  the  words  of  returning  spirit- 
ual health,  so  that  we  should  desire  to  meet  them  in  each  normal  repent- 
ance, or  not?  We  shall  find  that  at  a  later  period  he  drops  them  (ver. 
21),  and  shall  then  have  something  more  to  say  about  them.     A  scholar 


*  And  again :  Esto  accusator  tuus,  et  ille  erit  indultor  tuus ;  cf.  Enarr.  in  Ps. 
xxxi.  5.  Tertullian,  in  his  treatise  De  PanUentia  (c.  9,  10),  has  many  useful 
remarks,  in  connection  with  this  parable,  on  the  benefit  of  unreserved  confession : 
Tantiim  relevat  confessio  dehctorum  quantum  dissimulatio  cxaggerat.  Confessio 
enim  satisfactionis  consilium  est,  dissimulatio,  contumaci.*e.  .  .  In  quantum  non 
peperceris  tibi.  in  tantum  tibi  Deus,  crede,  parcet.  The  whole  treatise  breathes  a 
far  different  spirit  from  that  in  which  the  other  above  referred  to,  De  Pudkilia,  is 
written  ;  and  yet  is  most  useful,  as  showing  us  how  far  more  serious  and  earnest  a 
thing  repentance  was  accounted  in  the  early  Church,  than  it  is  commonly  now,  how 
much  more  it  linked  itself  with  outward  self-denials  and  humiliations. 

t  Cajetan :  Non  audebo  petere  redintegrationcm  in  statum  filii,  in  pristina  dona 
grandia :  sed  petam  dona  incipientium,  qui  amore  seternae  mercedis  serviunt  Deo. 
4 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  331 

of  St.  Bernard's  here  exclaims :  "  Keep,  0  happy  sinner,  keep  watch- 
fully ami  carefully  this  thy  most  just  feeling  of  humility  and  devotion: 
by  which  thou  niayest  ever  esteem  the  same  of  thyself  in  humility,  of 
the  Lord  in  goodness.  Than  it  there  is  nothing  greater  in  the  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  nothing  more  precious  in  the  treasures  of  God,  nothing 
more  holy  among  all  graces,  nothing  more  wholesome  among  [all]  sacra- 
ments. Keep,  I  say,  if  thou  wilt  thyself  be  kept,  the  humility  of  that 
speech  and  feeling,  with  which  thou  confessest  to  thy  Father,  and  sayest, 
'Father,  I  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son.'  For  humility  is  of 
all  graces  the  chiefest,  even  while  it  does  not  know  itself  to  be  a  grace  at 
all.  From  it  they  begin,  by  it  they  advance,  in  it  they  are  consummated, 
through  it  they  are  preserved."*  But  it  is  wholly  against  the  spirit  of 
this  parable,  when  he  exhorts  him  still  to  persist  in  taking  the  place  of 
a  servant,  even  after  his  father  shall  have  bidden  him  to  resume  the  po- 
sition of  a  son.  This  is  that  false  humility  of  which  we  find  so  much, 
and  which  often  is  so  mightily  extolled,  in  monkery,  but  of  which  we  find 
nothing  in  this  parable,  nor  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  true  hu- 
mility when  bidden  to  go  up  higher,  to  go.  It  was  true  humility  in  Peter 
to  sufier  the  Lord  to  wash  his  feet,  as  it  would  have  been  false  humility, 
as  well  as  disobedience,  to  resist  longer  than  he  did :  it  was  true  humil- 
ity of  the  prodigal,  when  his  father  would  have  it  so,  to  accept  at  once 
the  place  of  a  son. 

There  is  no  tarrying  now ;  what  he  has  determined  to  do,  at  once 
he  does ;  being  about  to  prove  how  much  larger  are  the  riches  of  grace, 
which  are  laid  up  with  his  father,  than  he  had  dared  to  hope ;  "  He 
arose,  and  came  to  his  father ;  but  when  he  was  yet  a  great  way  off,  his 
father  saw  him^  and  had  compassion,  and  ran  and  fell  on  his  neck  (Gen. 
xlv.  14;  xlvi.  29;  Job  xi.  ^),  and  kissed  him."  The  evidences  of  the 
father's  love  are  described  with  a  touching  minuteness  ;  he  does  not  wait 
for  the  poor  returning  wanderer  till  he  has  come  all  the  way,  but  him- 
self hastens  forward  to  meet  him ;  he  does  not  wear  at  first  an  aspect  of 
severity,  only  after  a  season  to  be  relaxed  or  laid  aside,  but  at  once  wel- 
comes him  with  the  kiss,  which  is  something  more  than  an  evidence  of 
affection,  being  the  significant,  and  in  the  East  well  understood,  pledge 
of  reconciliation  and  peace.  (Gen.  xxxiii.  4 ;  2  Sam.  xiv.  33 ;  Ps.  ii. 
12.)  It  is  thus  the  Lord  draws  nigh  unto  them  that  draw  nigh  unto 
himf  (Jam.  iv.  8),  he  sees  them  while  they  are  "  yet  a  great  way  off." 


*  Guorricus.  in  a  .singularly  boautiful  .sermon  in  the  Boned,  edit,  of  St.  Bernard, 
V.  2,  p.  986 :  Humilitas  si(iuidem  omnium  virtutum  est  maxima,  ciini  tamen  virtu- 
tem  .so  esse  ncsciat :  ab  ipsa  incipiunt,  per  ipsam  proficiunt,  in  ipsA  consummantur, 
per  ipsam  conservantur. 

t  Thus  there  is  an  Eastern  proverb,  If  man  draws  near  to  God  an  inch,  God 


\ 


332  THE  PRODIGAL  SON". 

It  was  he  who  put  within  them  even  the  first  weak  notions  toward  good ; 
— and  as  his  grace  prevented  them,  so  also  it  meets  them  ; — he  listens 
to  the  first  faint  sighings  of  their  hearts  after  him,  for  it  was  he  that  first 
awoke  those  sighings  there  (Ps.  x.  17.)  And  though  thej  may  be 
"  yet  a  great  way  o/,"  though  there  may  be  very  much  of  ignorance  in 
them  still,  far  too  slight  a  view  of  the  evil  of  their  sin,  or  of  the  holiness 
of  the  Grod  with  whom  they  have  to  deal,  yet  he  meets  them,  notwith- 
standing, with  the  evidences  of  his  mercy  and  reconciled  love.  Neither 
makes  he  them  first  to  go  through  a  dreary  apprenticeship  of  servile  fear 
at  a  distance  from  him,  but  at  once  embraces  them  in  the  arms  of  his 
love,  giving  them  at  this  first  moment  strong  consolations,  perhaps 
stronger  and  more  abounding  than  afterwards,  when  they  are  settled  in 
their  Christian  course,  they  will  oftentimes  receive.  And  this  he  does, 
because  such  they  need  at  this  moment,  to  assure  them  that  notwith- 
standing their  moral  loathsomeness  and  defilement  and  misery,  they  are 
accepted  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  convince  them  of  that  which  it  is  so  hard 
for  the  sinner  to  believe,  which  it  is  indeed  the  great  work  of  faith  to 
realize,  that  God  has  put  away  their  sin.  and  is  pacified  toward  them. 

But  the  returning  son,  though  thus  graciously  received,  though  his 
sin  is  not  mentioned  against  him  at  all,  yet  not  the  less  makes  the  con- 
fession which  he  had  determined  in  his  heart,  when  the  purpose  of 
returning  was  first  conceived.  And  this  was  fitting  ;  for  though  God  may 
forgive,  man  is  not  therefore  to  forget.  Nor  should  we  fail  to  note  that 
it  is  after,  and  not  before,  the  kiss  of  reconciliation,  that  this  confession 
finds  place  ;  for  the  more  the  sinner  knows  and  tastes  of  the  love  of  God, 
the  more  he  grieves  ever  to  have  sinned  against  that  love.  It  is  under 
the  genial  rays  of  this  kindly  love,  that  the  heart,  which  was  before 
bound  up  as  by  a  deadly  frost,  begins  to  thaw  and  to  melt  and  loosen, 
and  the  waters  of  repentance  to  flow  freely  forth.  The  knowledge  of 
God's  love  in  Christ  is  the  cruse  of  salt  which  alone  can  turn  the  bitter 
and  barren-making  streams  of  remorse  into  the  healing  waters  of  repent- 
ance. And  thus  the  truest  and  best  repentance  follows,  and  does  not 
precede,  the  sense  of  forgiveness ;  and  thus  too  will  repentance  be  a 
thing  of  the  whole  life  long,  for  every  new  insight  into  that  forgiving 
love,  is  as  a  new  reason  why  we  should  mourn  that  we  ever  sinned 
against  it.  It  is  a  mistake  to  affirm  that  men,  those  I  mean  in  whom 
there  is  a  real  spiritual  work  going  forward,  will  lay  aside  their  repent- 
ance, so  soon  as  they  are  convinced  of  the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  and 


will  draw  near  to  him  an  ell ;  or  as  Yon  Hammer  {Fund.  d.  Orients,  v.  4,  p.  91) 
gives  it : 

Wer  sich  mir  eine  Spanne  weit  naht,  dem  eile  ich  eine  Elle  lang  entgegen, 
Und  wer  mir  gehend  entgegen  kommt,  dem  eile  ich  in  Sprlingen  zu. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  333 

that  therefore, — since  repentance,  deep,  earnest,  long-continued,  self- 
mortifying  repentance,  is  a  good  thing,  as  indeed  it  is, — the  longer  men 
can  be  kept  in  suspense  concerning  their  forgiveness  the  better,  as  iu 
this  way  a  deeper  foundation  of  repentance  will  be  laid.  This  is  surely 
a  wrong  view  of  the  relations  in  which  repentance  and  forgiveness  stand 
to  each  other ;  and  their  true  relation  is  rather  opened  to  us  in  such  pas- 
sages as  Ezek.  xxxvi.  31,  where  the  Lord  says,  "  TJocn''  (and  for  what 
that  tJten  means,  see  ver.  24-30  :  then,  after  I  have  cleansed  you. — after 
I  have  given  you  a  new  heart, — after  I  have  heaped  all  my  richest  bless- 
ings upon  you,  then  under  the  sense  of  these)  ''  shall  ye  remember  your 
own  evil  ways,  and  your  doings  that  were  not  good,  and  shall  loathe 
yourselves  in  your  own  sight  for  your  inii^uities  and  your  abominations." 
Compare  Ezek.  xvi.  60-63,  where  the  Lord  declares  he  has  established 
his  covenant  with  Judah  for  the  very  purpose  "that  thou  mayest 
remember  and  be  confounded,  and  never  open  thy  mouth  any  more  be- 
cause of  thy  shame,  wlien  I  am  pacified  toward  tliee  for  all  that  thou, 
hast  done."  The  younger  son,  while  he  has  the  clearest  evidence  that 
his  father  is  pacified  toward  him,  does  not  the  less  confess  his  shame. 
He  does  not  indeed  say  all  that  he  had  once  intended, — he  does  not  say, 
"  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  lured  servants  :"  for  this  was  the  one  troubled 
element  of  his  repentance,  this  purpose  of  shrinking  back  from  his 
father's  love,  and  from  the  free  grace  which  would  restore  to  him  all : 
and  in  his  dropping  of  these  words,  in  his  willingness  to  be  blest  by  his 
father  to  the  uttermost,  if  such  is  his  father's  pleasure,  there  is  beautiful 
evidence  that  the  grace  which  he  has  already  received  he  has  not  received 
in  vain.  Bengel  thinks  it  possible  that  his  father  cut  him  short,  and  so 
took  these  words  out  of  his  mouth,  but  has  also  suggested  the  truer  ex- 
planation.* 

And  now  the  father  declared  plainly  in  act,  that  he  meant  to  give 
him  a  place  and  a  name  in  his  house  once  more ;  for  he  '•  saul  to  his 
servants.  Bring  forth  tJie  best  robe  and  put  it  on  him^  and  put  a  ring  on 
his  hand  and  shoes  on  his  feet"  these  all  being  the  ornaments,  not  of  the 
slave,  but  of  the  free  ;t  all,  therefore,  speaking  of  restoration  to  his 


*  Bengel :  Vel  quod  ex  obvii  patris  comitate  accensa  filialis  fiducia  omnem  ser- 
vilem  si'iisuni  absorberet,  vel  quod  patris  comitas  sermonem  filii  abrumperet.  So 
Augustine  ( Quasi.  Evang.,  1.  2,  qu.  33) :  Ciim  enim  panem  non  haberet,  vel  mer- 
cenarius  es.se  cui)iebat;  quod  post  osculum  patris  generosissimfe  jam  dedignatur. 

*  Thus  Tertullian  {Dr:  Resur.  Cam.,  c.  57)  speaking  of  the  manumitted  slave: 
Veslis  alba:  nitnre,  et  aurei  annuli  honore.  et  jjatroni  nomine  ac  tribu  mrnsaque  hono- 
ralur.  Grotius :  AoktvKiov  apud  Romanes  ingcnuitatis,  apud  Orientes  populos 
dignitatis  eximia;  signum,  aut  etiam  oinilentiae.  (Jac.  ii.  2.)  Ho  might  have 
added  Gen.  xli.  42.  Cf.  Elsnf.r  in  the  Bib/loth.  Brem.,  v.  3,  p.  906;  and  for  the 
significance  of  the  ring,  the  Did.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antl.,  s.  v.  Rings,  p.  824. 


334  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

former  dignity,  and  his  lost  privileges.  Or  if  we  cannot  suppose  the 
Roman  customs  which  accompanied  the  lifting  up  of  a  slave  to  a  free- 
man's rank,  to  have  been  familiarly  known  in  Palestine,  or  to  be  here 
alluded  to,  yet  the  giving  of  the  robe  and  ring  were  ever  accounted,  in 
the  East,  among  the  highest  tokens  of  favor  and  honor  (G-en.  xli.  42 ; 
1  Mace.  vi.  15) ;  so  that,  in  fact,  tliese  words  would  still  testify  of  highest 
blessings  and  chiefest  favors  in  store  for  him  who  had  most  justly  con- 
fessed that  he  had  forfeited  his  claim  to  the  least  of  these. 

Few  interpreters,  even  among  those  who  commonly  are  most  opposed 
to  the  giving  a  spiritual  meaning  to  the  minuter  circumstances  of  a  para- 
ble, have  been  able  to  resist  the  temptation  of  doing  so  here  ;  and  there 
is  a  pretty  general  agreement  concerning  the  manner  in  wliich  these  cir- 
cumstances shall  be  explained.  There  is  a  question,  however,  whether 
"  thejirst  robe  "  is  to  be  understood  as  the  first  in  worth,  as  our  transla- 
tion has  it, "  the  best  robe."  the  most  excellent  that  was  laid  up  in  the 
house, — or  "  theJormer*robe"  that  which  he  wore  when  of  old  he  walked 
a  son  in  his  father's  house,  and  which  has  been  kept  for  him,  and  was 
now  to  be  restored.  The  difference  is  not  important,  though  our  trans- 
lation is  clearly  the  right ;  nor  whether  we  say  that  by  the  giving  of  this 
robe  is  signified  the  imputation  to  him  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ,| 
or  the  restoration  of  sanctity  to  his  soul.  If  we  see  in  it  his  reintegra- 
tion in  his  baptismal  privileges,  then  both  will  be  implied.  They  who 
bring  forth  the  robe  have  been  generally  interpreted  as  the  ministers  of 
reconciliation ;  and  if  we  may  imagine  them  first  to  have  removed  from 
him,  as  they  would  naturally  have  done,  the  tattered  garments,  the  poor 
swineherd's  rags  which  were  hanging  about  him,  Zech.  iii.  4  will  then 
suggest  to  us  an  interesting  parallel.  Those  who  stood  before  the  Lord 
there,  would  answer  to  the  servants  here, — and  what  they  did  for  Joshua 
there,  removing  his  filthy  garments  from  him,  and  clothing  him  with  a 
change  of  raiment,  and  setting  a  fair  mitre  on  his  head,  the  same  would 
the  servants  do  here  for  the  son,  with  the  difference  only  that  instead  of 
the  mitre,  the  appropriate  adornment  there  of  the  high  priest,  the  ring 

*  The  Vulgate :  Stolam  primam.  Tertullian :  Vestem  pristinam,  priorem, 
Theopliylact :  TV  <jro\)]v  rrjv  apxaiav, — but  rather,  Stolam  illam  prfestantissiraam  ; 
as  Euthymius :  r^v  TL/xiuirdT-qv.  Cf.  Gen.  xxvii.  15.  LXX.  TV  (ttoK^v  tV  ica\-fiu. 
There  need  no  quotations  to  prove  how  often  irpwTos  is  used  in  this  sense  of  the 
chiefest.  the  most  excellent  (see  1  Ghron.  xxvii.  33 ;  Ezek.  xxvii.  22,  LXX). 
Passow,  s.  v.,  der  vornehmste,  angesehenste.  The  ittoA^  is  the  vestis  talaris,  the 
long  and  wide  upper  garment  of  the  higher  classes.     (Mark  xxii.  38.) 

t  Tertullian  :  Indunientum  Spirittis  Sancti.  Jerome :  Stolam  quie  in  alifi  para- 
bola, indumentum  dicitur  nu])tiale.  Augustine :  Stola  prima  est  dignitas  quam 
perdidit  Adam ;  and  in  another  place,  spes  immortalitatis  in  baptisrao.  Theophy- 
lact:  Th  (uSufia  TTjs  acpSrapalas.  Guerricus  :  Sanctificationem  Spirittis,  qu^  baptiza- 
tus  induitur  et  poenitens  reinduitur. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  335 

and  the  shoes  are  here  mentioned ;  and  the  symbolic  act  has  in  each 
case,  no  doubt,  the  same  signification  ;  what  that  is,  the  Lord  there  ex- 
pressly declares — '•  Behold,  I  have  caused  thine  iniquity  to  pass  from 
thee."  These  words,  brought  to  bear  on  the  passage  before  us.  make  it, 
I  think,  more  probable  that  by  this  bringing  out  of  the  best  robe,  and 
putting  it  upon  him,  is  especially  signified  that  act  of  God,  which,  con- 
sidered on  its  negative  side,  is  a  release  from  condemnation,  a  causing 
the  sinner's  iniquity  to  pass  from  him, — on  its  positive  side,  is  an  impu- 
tation to  him  of  the  merits  and  righteousness  of  Christ. 

This  explanation,  for  other  reasons  also,  is  preferable,  since  we  have 
the  gift ^r  restoration  of.theJSpirit jndicated  in  the  ring  with  which  the 
returning  wanderer  is  also  adorned.  It  is  well  known,  and  despite  Pli- 
ny's* denial  is  unquestionable,  that  in  the  East,  as  with  us,  the  ring  was 
also  often  a^jealf  (Esth.  iii.  10,  13;  Jer.  xxii.  24).  which  naturally 
brings  here  to  our  minds  such  passages  as  Ephes.  i.  13,  14;  2  Cor.  i. 
22,  in  which  a  sealing  by  God's  Spirit  is  spoken  of,  whereby  they  that  ' 
have  it  are  assured,  as  by  an  earnest,  of  a  larger  inheritance  one  day 
coming  to  them,  and  which  witnesses  with  their  spirits  that  they  are  the 
sons  of  God.  (Gal.  iv.  6 ;  Rom.  viii.  23  ;  2  Cor.  v.  5.)  The  ring,  too, 
may  be  the  pledge  of  betrothal  :|  "  And  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  for 
ever :  yea,  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  righteousness,  and  in  judg- 
ment, and  in  loving-kindness,  and  in  mercies,  and  I  will  even  betroth  thee 
unto  me  in  faithfulness;  and  thou  shalt  know  the  Lord."  (Hos.  ii.  19, 
20.151)  The  shoes  also  are  given  him,  to  which  answers  the  promise,  "I 
will  strengtTieh'Them  in  the  Lord,  and  they  shall  walk  up  and  down  in 
his  name.''  (Zech.  x.  12.)  The  penitent  shall  be  equipped  for  holy 
obedience.jf  having  his  "feet  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  Gospel  of 


*  H.  N.,  1.  .3.3,  c.  6.  Speaking  of  the  seal-ring,  he  says :  Non  signat  Oriens  aut 
iEgyptus  etiani  nunc,  litteris  contcnta  solis.  The  later  discoveries  have  shown  this 
as  false  concerTiirig  Egyi)t  as  the  East;  see  moreover  Herod.,  1.  2,  c.  38. 

f  Clem.  Alex.  (Potter's  ed.,  p.  1017):  L-nfiavrpov  Paa-t\tKhv  koI  a<ppayiSa  dilav, 
and  presently  after,  awo(r(ppayi(rfj.a  SS^ris.  The  fragment  whence  these  words  are 
taken,  is  interesting  in  many  respects ;— and  among  otliers  in  this,  that  the  author, 
whether  Clement  or  another,  affirms  of  the  prodigal  that  he  had  not  merely  wa.sted 
the  natural  gifts  of  God,  but  esi)ecially  abused  twu  rov  fiaTTTLcrfxaTos  ij^iw/xfi'tay 

:|:  Ambrose  (D<?  Pffi7»<.,  1.  2,  c.  3):  Det  annulum  in  manu  ejus,  quod  est  fidei 
pignus,  ct  Sancti  Spiritfis  signaculum. 

^  The  whole  chai)ter  affords  deeply  interesting  parallels :  ver.  5  (the  latter  part) 
answering  to  ver.  11,  12  here;  ver.  G-13  there  to  13-19  here;  and  ver.  14-23  to 
20-24. 

II  Guerricus :  Calceamenta,  quibus  ad  calcanda  serpentum  vencna  munitur,  vel 
ad  evangelizandum  i)rwparatur.  Grotius.  quoting  Ephes.  vi.  15,  adds.  Nimirum 
poenitentibus  in  gratiam  receptis  ctiam  hoc  Deus  coucedit,  ut  apti  sint  aliis  ant 


336  THE  PRODIGAL  SON". 

peace."  (Ephes.  vi.  15.)  No  strength  shall  be  wanting  to  him.  (Deut. 
xxxiii.  25.)  When  it  is  added,  "  Brwig  hither  the  fatted  calf*  and  kill 
it.'-  it  would  create  a  confusion  of  images,  again  to  go  back  to  the  sacri- 
fice of  Christ,  which  was  implicitly  contained  in  the  first  image,  that  of 
the  giving  of  the  robe,  and  which,  moreover,  is  not  a  consequence  of  the 
sinner's  return,  as  the  killing  of  the  fatted  calf  is  the  consequence  of 
the  prodigal's,  but  the  ground  which  renders  that  return  possible.!  Nor 
should  I  here  see  (with  Tertullian|  and  Clement  of  Alexandria)  spe- 
cial allusion  to  the  Eucharist,  but  more  generally  to  the  festal  joy  and 
rejoicing  which  is  in  heaven  at  the  sinner's  return,  and  no  less  in  the 
Church  on  earth,  and  in  his  own  heart  also.§ 

As  in  the  preceding  parables  the  shepherd  summons  his  friends  (ver. 
6),  and  the  woman  her  female  neighbors  (ver.  9),  so  here  the  house- 
holder his  servants,  to  be  sharers  in  his  joy.  For  this  is  the  very  na- 
ture of  true  joy — that  it  runs  over,  that  it  desires  to  impart  itself:  and 
if  this  be  true  of  the  joy  on  earth,  how  much  more  of  the  yet  holier  joy 
in  heaven.  II  And  summoning  them  to  rejoice,  he  declares  to  them  the 
ground  of  the  joy  in  which  they  are  invited  to  share.  In  an  earthly 
household,  we  might  naturally  conclude  some  to  have  made  part  of  the 
household  now,  who  had  not  made  part  at  the  time  of  the  young  man's 
departure.  To  them,  therefore,  it  was  needful  to  declare  that  this  wan- 
derer, this  beggar  as  it  seemed,  was  no  other  than  a  son  of  the  house, 
one  who  should  henceforth  be   by  them  treated  and  regarded  as  such. 

voce  aut  certfe  exemplo  docendis,  and  quotes  well  Ps.  li.  13,  in  this  view.  And  see 
Clemens  Alex.  (Potter's  ed.,  p.  1018)  for  much  that  is  beautiful  and  something  that 
is  fanciful  on  these  shoes, — though  the  vnoSrj/jiaTa  were  probably  rather  sandals 
than  shoes,  the  latter  being  in  very  rare  use  in  the  East.  The  word  is  used  in- 
terchangeably with  (xavSaXia,  by  the  LXX.,  though  there  is  a  distinction.  (See 
Tittm.4nn'.s  Si/iiomjvis,  and  the  Did.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.  s.  v.  Sandalium,  p. 
839.)  Much  luxury  was  often  displayed  among  the  wealthy  in  this  article  of  dress 
(see  Judith  xvi.  9;  Ezek.  xvi.  10;  Cant.  vii.  1),  so  that  we  can  easily  understand 
why  they  should  have  been  especially  mentioned ;  not  to  say  that  slaves  usually 
went  discalceati. 

*  Thv  iJ.6(Jxov  rhv  <TtTev6u.  Cf  Judg.  vi.  25  (LXX.) ;  Tertullian :  Yitulum  prae- 
opimum, — that  set  by  for  some  special  occasion  of  festal  rejoicing.  In  the  Geneva 
version,  "  that  fatted  calf" 

t  Augustine  evades  this  diflSculty :  Tunc  enim  cuique  [Christus]  occlditur  cfim 
credit  occisum. 

■^  Dc  Pudic.  c.  9. 

^  Arndt  (De  Vera  Christ.,  1.  2,  c.  8) :  Hoc  convivium  innuit  gaudium  angelo- 
rum,  sive  virijicantem,  latificantem,  et  coronantcm  misericordiam  quam  Ps.  Ixiii.  5; 
Jes.  Ixvi.  13.  depingit. 

11  Origen  {Horn.  23  in  Lev.)  on  the  words  "  My  feasts,"  which  there  occurs, 
asks :  Ilabet  ergo  Deus  dies  festos  sues  1  Habet.  Est  enim  ei  magna  festivitas 
humana  salus. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  337 

The  father  solemnly  reinstates  him,  before  them  all,  in  the  honors  of  a 
son.  "  TJds  my  8071"  he  says — and  then,  comparing  the  present  with 
the  past,  '•  ivas  dead,  and  is  alive  again'" — "  dead"  for  the  state  of  sin  is 
ever  considered  in  Scripture  as  a  state  of  death — (1  John  iii.  14;  1 
Tim.  V.  6  ;  Ephes.  ii.  1) — '•  he  icas  lost,  and  is  found" — compare  1  Pet. 
ii.  25  :  "  Ye  were  as  sheep  going  astray,  but  are  now  returned  unto  the 
shepherd  and  bishop  of  your  souls  ;"  and  while  thus  the  lost  was  found, 
and  the  dead  alive,  "  tlocy  began  to  be  merry." 

Here  this  parable,  like  the  two  preceding,  might  have  ended.  But 
our  Lord  at  ver.  1 1  saying  " two  sons"  had  promised  something  more  ; 
and  complete  as  is  this  first  part  within  itself,  yet  is  it  also  to  form  part 
of  another  and  more  complex  whole,  and  to  derive  new  beauty  from  the 
contrast  which  is  thus  brought  out  between  the  large  heart  of  Grod  and 
the  narrow  grudging  heart  of  man.  For  the  purposes  of  this  contrast 
the  elder  brother,  who  as  yet  has  been  named  to  us,  and  no  more,  is  now 
brought  upon  the  scene.  He,  while  the  house  is  ringing  with  the  festal 
rejoicing,  returns  from  "  the  field"  where,  no  doubt,  he  had  been,  as 
usual,  laboriously  occupied ;  so  much  is  implied  in  the  words ;  and  it  is 
not  without  good  reason  that  tliis  intimation  is  given  us.  For  thus  we 
are  informed  that  while  the  other  had  been  wasting  time  and  means  and 
strength, — his  whole  portion  of  goods, — in  idle  and  sinful  pleasures 
abroad, /«:  had  been  engaged  at  home,  on  his  fiither's  ground,  in  pursuits 
of  useful  industry.  This  is  not  a  justification,  but  yet  is  a  tacit  expla- 
nation, of  the  complaints  which  he  presently  thinks  himself  entitled  to 
make.  As  he  "  dreiv  nigh  to  the  house,  he  heard  mnsic  and  dancing.'''' 
It  would  be  alien  to  the  manners  and  feelings  of  the  East,  to  suppose 
the  guests  themselves  to  have  been  engaged  in  these  diversions :  they 
would  but  be  listeners  and  spectators,  the  singers  and  dancers  being 
hired  for  such  occasions.  Surprised  at  these  unaccustomed  sounds,  "/ie 
called  one  of  tlie  servants  arul  asked  tvhat  tliese  things  meant."  Let  us 
note  here  with  what  delicate  touches  the  ungenial  character  of  the  man 
is  indicated  already.  He  does  not  go  in  ;  he  does  not  take  for  granted 
that  when  his  father  makes  a  feast,  there  is  matter  worthy  of  making 
merry  about.  But,  as  if  already  determined  to  mislike  what  is  going 
forward,  he  prefers  to  remain  without,  and  to  learn  from  a  servant  the 
occasion  of  the  joy,  or  rather,  as  he  puts  it,  "  ichat  these  things  meant^^ 
demanding  an  explanation,  as  if  they  required  it.  .  And  then  the  tidings 
that  his  father  had  received  his  brother  "  safe  and  sound,  "*  with  the 

*  How  nice  is  the  observance  of  all  the  lesser  proprieties  of  the  narration.   The 

father,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  natural  affection,  is  yet  full  of  the  moral  signiflcince 

of  his  son's  return — that  he  has  come  back  another  person  from  what  he  was  when 

he  went,  or  while  he  tarried  in  that  far  land ;  he  sees  into  the  deep  of  his  joy,  that 

22 


338  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

thought  of  his  father's  joy,  his  brother's  safety,  instead  of  stirring  up 
any  gladness  in  his  heart,  move  him  rather  to  displeasure  ;  "  he  was  an- 
g7'y"  and  in  place  of  rushing  to  that  brother's  arms,  "  would  not  go  in}'' 
Nor  even  when  his  father  so  far  bore  with  him  as  to  come  out  and 
entreat  him,  would  he  lay  aside  his  displeasure,  but  loudly  complained 
of  the  unfairness  with  which  Ac  was  treated — the  bounty  which  was  be- 
stowed upon  his  brother's  misconduct :  "  Lo  !  these  many  years  do  I 
serve  thee^  neither  transgressed  I  at  any  time  thy  commandment^  and  yet 
thou  never  gavest  me  a  kid,  that  I  might  make  merry  with  ojiy  friends.'''* 

/  And  then  he  invidiously  compares  the  father's  conduct  to  his  brother ; 

'  "  This  t,vy  son^'  he  says  not,  my  brother, — "  ivhich  hath  devoured  thy 
living,'''  again  invidiously,  for  in  a  sense  it  was  his  own — "  toith  harlots,''' 
very  probably,  yet  only  a  presumption  upon  his  part — "  as  soon  as  he 

I  was  co??ie,"  he  says  not,  tvas  returned,]  as  of  one  who  had  now  at  length 
resumed  his  own  place,  but  speaks  of  him  as  a  stranger — upon  the  first 
moment  of  his  arrival,  and  after  years,  not  of  duty,  but  disobedience — 
"  thou  hast  killed  for  him,"  not  a  kid  merely,  but  the  choicest  calf  in  the 
stall.  What  would  he  have  said,  if  he  had  known  all,  and  seen  him 
arrayed  in  the  best  robe,  and  with  all  his  other  adornments,  when  this 
which  alone  he  mentions,  as  it  is  all  which  he  has  learned  from  his  infor- 
mant, so  moves  his  indignation  ? 

It  is  too  joyful  an  occasion  for  the  father  to  take  the  just  exception 
which  he  might  at  the  tone  and  temper  of  this  remonstrance.  There 
shall  not  be,  if  he  can  help  it,  a  cloud  upon  any  brow,  and  instead  of 
answering  with  aught  of  severity,  he  expostulates  with  the  malcontent, 
would  have  him  see  the  unreasonableness  of  his  complaint — nor  does  he 

I  fail  to  warn  him  that  he  is  now,  in  fact,  falling  into  the  very  sin  of  his 
brother,  when  he  said,  "  Give  me  tJie  portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to  meP 
He  is  feeling  as  though  he  did  not  truly  possess  what  he  possessed  with 
his  father, — as  though  he  must  separate  and  divide  something  oflf  from 
his  father's  stock,  before  he  could  call  it  truly  his  own.  The  father's 
answer  is  a  warning  against  this  evil,  which  lay  at  the  root  of  the  elder 


he  is  receiving  him  now  indeed  a  son,  once  dead  but  now  alive,  once  lost  to  him 
and  to  God,  but  now  found  alike  by  both.  But  the  servant  confines  himself  to  the 
more  external  features  of  the  case,  to  the  fact,  that  after  all  he  has  gone  through  of 
excess  and  hardship,  his  father  has  yet  received  \i\\a.  ^'- safe  and  sound."  Even  if 
he  could  enter  deeper  into  the  matter,  yet  with  a  suitable  discretion  he  confines 
himself  to  that  which  falls  plainly  under  his  and  every  one's  eye. 

*  Jerome  {^Ad.  Dam..,  Ep.  21)  finding  an  emphasis  in  these  last  words,  '■^with 
my  friends"  asks  of  him  :  Potest  esse  tibi  aliqua  jucunditas  nisi  patre  te  cum  cele- 
brante  convivium'?     Cf  Brrnard,  In,  Cant.,  Serm.  14,  4. 

f  This  is  one  of  Bengel's  fine  and  delicate  notices :  Venit,  dicit,  ut  de  alieno 
loquens :  non,  rediit. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  339 

brother's  speech,  though  it  had  spoken  out  more  plainly  in  the  younger's 
the  same  which  spoke  out  most  plainly  of  all  in  the  words  of  the  wicked 
husbandmen,  "  This  is  the  heir ;  let  us  kill  him,  that  the  inheritance 
may  be  ours."  "  Son^  thou  art  ever  with  me^  and  all  that  I  have  is  thine;" 
and  then  he  makes  him  see  the  unloving  spirit  out  of  which  his  discon- 
tent proceeded;  "  It  ivas  meet  that  we  sJiouhl  inake  merry  and  be  glad; 
for  this  thy  brother  "  (not  merely  "  my  son,"  as  thou  hast  ungraciously 
put  it,  but  "  thy  brother,"  kinned  to  thee,  and  to  whom  therefore  kind- 
ness is  due) — he  "  ivas  dead,  and  is  alive  again  ;*  was  lost,  and  isfoiaul." 
What  success  the  father's  expostulations  met,  we  are  not  told. 
Whether  we  shall  assume  them  to  have  been  successful  or  not  will,  in 
fact,  be  mainly  determined  by  the  interpretation  which  we  give  to  this 
concluding  portion  of  the  parable.  Those  who  see  in  the  younger 
brother  the  Grentile,  and  therefore  in  the  elder  the  Jew,t  certainly  find 
this  portion  of  it  encumbered  with  fewer  diflBculties  than  those  who  deny 
that  its  primary  purpose  can  be  to  set  forth  their  history,  and  their  rela- 
tions to  one  another  and  to  God.  As  in  the  interpretation  which  I  have 
here  sought  to  establish,  the  correctness  of  such  application,  as  the  pri- 
mary at  least,  has  been  denied,  it  will  be  needful  to  look  elsewhere  for  a 
solution  of  the  difficulties,  which  are  indeed  the  same  which  beset  us  in 
the  parable  of  the  Laborers  in  the  Vineyard.  They  resolve  them- 
selves into  this  single  one, — Is  their  righteousness,  whom  the  elder  brother 
represents,  real  or  not  ?  If  real,  how  can  this  be  reconciled  with  his 
contumacy  towards  his  father,  and  his  unloving  spirit  towards  his  brother  ?| 

*  SCHOETTGEN.  HoT.  Heb.  V.  1,  p.  877. 

t  Thus  Augustine  (Quasf.  Evang..  1.  2,  qu.  33):  The  elder  brother  was  in  the 
field,  that  is,  the  Jew  was  occupied  labore  servllis  operis :  returning  he  heard 
music  and  dancing,  soil,  spiritu  plenos  vocibus  consonis  Evangelium  praedicare. 
He  inquires  of  the  prophets,  what  mean  these  festivals  in  the  Church,  in  which  he 
bears  no  part :  they  tell  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles ;  but  he  is  displeased,  and 
will  not  enter.  A  time  however  is  coming,  so  Augustine  continues,  after  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Gentiles  has  come  in,  when  the  father  will  come  out  and  entreat  him,  to 
the  end  that  all  Israel  may  be  saved  ;  for  by  this  coming  out  of  the  father,  he  un- 
derstands the  manifest  vocation  of  the  Jews  in  the  last  times.  Here  he  must  needs 
be  in  error :  for  however  we  may  accept  the  elder  brother  as  a  portrait  of  the  Jews 
as  they  were  iu  the  days  of  Christ's  earthly  life,  yet  we  cannot  imagine  his  con- 
tumacy and  selfTrighteousness  manifesting  itself  in  them,  when  the  Lord  hereafter 
shall  be  successfully  dealing  with  them  for  their  conversion,  and  when  "  they  shall 
look  on  him  whom  they  have  pierced,  and  mourn  for  him  as  one  that  is  in  bitter- 
ness for  his  first-born." 

\  Jerome's  reply  to  Damasus  {Ep.  21),  which  has  been  more  than  once  referred 
to,  is  very  remarkable,  as  showing  how  the  difficulties  which  press  upon  this  part 
of  the  parable,  were  felt  quite  as  strongly  in  the  Church  in  hi.s  time  as  now.  It 
was  just  this  question  which  Damasus  had  asked  :  Nunquid  persona;  justi  tarn  im- 
manis  invidia  poterit  coaptari  ?  And  Theophylact  calls  the  question  about  the 
elder  son,  rb  iro\vbpvWy\Tov  {iiTTjjua. 


340  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

For  does  the  true  believer  accuse  God  of  unrighteousness  in  his  dealings 
with  men  ?  does  he  grudge,  and  not  rather  rejoice,  when  one  who  has 
departed  more  widely,  it  may  be,  than  himself,  is  brought  home  to  the 
fold  of  God  ?  How  again  does  the  supposition  that  his  righteousness 
was  real,  agree  with  the  aim  of  this  part  of  the  parable,  which  is  directed 
against  the  Pharisees,  whose  righteousness,  for  the  most  part,  was  not 
such,  but  feigned  and  hypocritical?  But  on  the  other  side,  if  it  is  not 
real,  how  is  this  reconcilable  with  the  course  of  the  story,  according  to 
which  the  elder  brother  had  remained  ever  in  his  father's  house,  or  with 
his  uncontradicted  assertion  concerning  his  own  continued  obedience,  or 
with  the  meed  of  approbation  and  assurances  of  favor  which  he  receives 
from  his  father's  lips  ?  Each  determination  of  the  question  is  embar- 
rassed with  difficulties — and  that  certainly  with  considerable,  though 
perhaps  not  with  the  greatest,  which  is  come  to  by  Jerome,*  by  Theo- 
phylact.  and  by  others,  namely,  that  by  the  elder  son  the  Pharisees  are 
signified,  whose  righteousness  was  feigned  and  hypocritical ; — that  his 
assertions  concerning  his  own  continued  obedience  are  suffered  to  pass 
uncontradicted,  because,  even  granting  them  to  be  true,  the  case  would 
not  be  altered — the  father  arguing  with  him  e  concesso  .-f  "  Be  it  so,  that 
is  not  the  subject  now  in  hand ; — allowing  your  obedience  to  have  been 
without  interruption,  your  works  always  to  have  been  well-pleasing  in 
my  sight,  yet  ought  you  in  love  to  rejoice  that  your  brother  has  returned 
to  us  once  more,  and  to  be  well-pleased  at  this  exuberant  joy  and  glad- 
ness with  which  he  is  welcomed  home." 

But  there  seems  a  possible  middle  course,  which  shall  escape  the 
embarrassments  which  undoubtedly  perplex  this  as  well  as  the  opposite 
scheme  of  interpretation — that  we  see  in  him.  or  in  those  whom  he  repre- 
sents, a  low,  but  not  altogether  false  form  of  legal  righteousness.  He  is 
/one  who  has  been  kept  by  the  law  from  gross  offences — he  has  been 
occupied,  though  in  a  servile|  spirit,  in  the  works  of  that  law.  So,  no 
doubt,  had  been  many  of  the  Pharisees :  many  of  them  hypocrites — but 
'  also  many  of  them  sincerely,  though  in  much  blindness  of  heart,  follow- 
ing after  righteousness  (Rom.  x.  1,  2), — a  righteousness  indeed  of  a  low 
Bort,§  in  the  strivings  after  which,  while  those  were  mostly  external,  they 

*  Christ,  he  says,  paints  the  Pharisees,  non  quales  erant,  sed  quales  esse  debu- 
erant.     Theophylact  calls  them,  ko^'  v-ir6^€<nv  S'lKaioi. 

t  Jerome :  Non  confirmavit  vera  esse  quse  dixerat  filius,  sed  irascentem  alift. 
ratione  compescuit. 

^  I  cannot,  however,  press  the  word  SovXivw  (ver.  29)  into  service  here,  as  Ben- 
gel  does,  whose  note  upon  it  is, — Confessio  servitutis.  There  is  no  confession  of  a 
servile  mind,  no  abnegation  of  a  state  of  filial  adoption,  at  Acts  xx.  19 ;  1  Thess.  i.  9, 
nor  in  many  passages  where  SovXtva:  is  used, — any  more  than  when  Paul  calls  him- 
self a  servant  (SoDAos    of  Jesus  Christ. 

^  Salmeron:  Int  lligamus  veros  justoSj  sed  mediocres. 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 


341 


did  not  attain  to  any  deep  self-acquaintance,  any  such  knowledge  of  the 
plague  of  their  own  hearts  as  should  render  them  mild  and  merciful  to 
others,  any  such  insight  into  the  breadth  of  that  law  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  keep,  as  should  thoroughly  abase  them  before  God.  Such  may 
have  been  some  of  the  murmurers  here — persons  not  utterly  to  be  reject-/ 
ed,  nor  the  good  in  them  to  be  utterly  denied,  but  who  had  need  rather 
to  be  shown  what  was  faulty,  deficient,  narrow,  and  loveless  in  their  reliV 
gion ; — to  be  invited  to  renounce  their  servile  for  a  filial  spirit,  and  to'i 
enter  into  the  nobler  liberties  of  that  Church  and  kingdom  which  Christ 
was  establishing  upon  earth.  And  in  this  sense  we  must  then  under- 
stand the  father's  invitation  to  the  elder  son  to  come  in.  Hitherto  he 
had  been  laboring  "  in  thejield^'*  but  now  he  is  invited  to  a  festival. 
They  whose  work  for  God  had  hitherto  been  servile,  the  hard  taskwork 
of  the  law,  are  invited  now  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord,  the  freedom 
of  the  Spirit.f  This  part  of  the  parable  will  then  be  as  much  a  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  to  the  legalist,  as  the  earlier  part  of  it 
had  been  to  the  gross  sinner, — as  love  to  the  one  spoke  there,  so  love  to 
the  other  here. 

The  elder  son's  reply  to  the  father's  invitation  (ver.  29,  30),  and 
especially  those  words,  '■^yet  thmi  never  gavest  me  a  kid"  show  too  plainly 
that  he  understands  not  the  nature  of  that  kingdom  to  which  he  is  invited. 
He  is  looking  for  certain  definite  rewards  for  his  obedience,  to  the  get- 
ting something/ro?/i  God,  instead  of  possessing  all  things  i?i  God.|  In- 
stead of  feeling  it  his  true  reward,  that  he  had  been  ever  with  his  father, 
he  rather  would  plead  this  as  establishing  his  claim  to  some  other 
reward.^  In  the  father's  reply.  "  Son,  thou  art  ever  loith  me,  and  all 
that  I  have  is  thine"  we  must  be  careful  that  we  place  the  emphasis  on 
the  right  word,  for  without  this  we  shall  entirely  miss  the  meaning.  It 
is  not,  "  Son  thmt  art  ever  with  me,"  as  though  the  contrast  was  drawn 
between  him  and  the  younger  son  who  had  so  long  not  been  with  his 
father  ;  but  we  should  read  rather,  "  Son,  thou  art  ever  with  me"  setting 
the  emphasis  on  the  last  words.  "  What  need  to  talk  of  other  friends  ? 
thou  art  ever  with  a  better  than  them  all,  with  myself  Why  shouldest 
thou  have  expected  a  kid,  when  all  that  I  have  is  thine?"  To  make  the 
first  clause  of  the  sentence  an  honorable  recognition  of  his  past  obedi 
ence,  or  the  second  a  promise  that  he  "  shall  inherit  all  things,"  is  an 

*  Ambrose  Tcrronis  operibus  occupatus,  ignorans  (|ua?  sunt  Spiritft.s  Dei.  But 
Augustme  (^7i«/T.  frt  J^s.  cxxxviii.)  rather  more  favorably:  Significat  sanctos  in 
lege  facientes  opera  et  praccepta  legis. 

t  Augustine:  Ad  perfruitonem  potioris  atqiie  jocundioris  exultationis  invitat. 

I  Aiigtistine :  Non  dieit  pater.  Omnia  possides,  sed  Omnia  niea  tua  sunt. 

^  He  sliould  have  felt  in  Bernard's  words:  Ipse  retributor,  ipse  retributio  nostra, 
nee  aliud  jam  quJim  ipsum  expectamus  ab  ipso. 


342  THE  PEODIGAL  SON. 

entire  missing  and  marring  of  the  whole.  Rather  in  the  first  words  lies 
the  keenest,  though  at  the  same  time  the  most  loving,  rebuke  ;  "  Am  not 
I  to  thee  more  than  all  besides  ?"  in  the  second  the  most  earnest  warn- 
ing; "  What  is  mine  is  thine,  if  only  thou  wilt  so  regard  it ;  what  can  I 
do  for  thee,  if  thy  fellowship  in  my  things  fails  to  make  thee  feel  rich  ?" 
and  how  wonderfully  do  these  last  words  declare  to  us  the  true  nature  of 
the  rewards  of  the  kingdom:  '•'•  All  that  I  have  is  thine;"  the  elder  son 
no  doubt  had  thought  that  what  was  given  to  his  brother  was  taken  from 
him ;  but  in  the  free  kingdom  of  love  one  has  not  less,  because  another 
has  more  ;  but  all  is  possessed  by  each.  The  fountain  of  God's  grace  is 
not  as  a  little  scanty  spring  in  the  desert,  round  which  thirsty  travellers 
need  to  strive  and  struggle,  muddying  the  waters  with  their  feet,  pushing 
one  another  away,  lest  those  waters  be  drawn  dry  by  others  before  they 
come  to  partake  of  them  themselves,  but  a  mighty  inexhaustible  river,  on 
the  banks  of  which  all  may  stand,  and  of  which  none  need  grudge  lest  if 
others  drink  largely  and  freely,  there  will  not  enough  remain  for  them- 
selves. To  each  of  his  true  servants  and  children  the  Lord  says,  as  the 
father  did  to  his  elder  son,  "  All  that  I  have  is  thine;"*  if  any  then  is 
straitened  and  counts  that  he  has  not  enough,  he  is  straitened,  as  is  the 
elder  son  here,  not  in  God,  but  in  himself,  in  his  own  narrow  and  grudg- 
ing heart. 

There  is  abundant  reason  why  nothing  should  be  said  of  the  issue  of 
the  father's  expostulations  with  his  discontented  son.  That  could  not 
yet  be  told,  even  as  it  was  yet  uncertain  whetlier  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees might  not  also  be  won  to  repentance,  which  indeed,  though  of  an- 
other kind  and  for  other  sins,  they  needed  quite  as  much  as  the  publi- 
cans and  harlots.  The  Lord  not  distinctly  declaring  that  the  elder  son 
sullenly  refused  to  tlie  last  to  enter  in,  or  that  he  was  finally  excluded 
for  his  contumacy,  intimated  to  these,  that  as  yet  the  kingdom  of  God 
was  not  closed  against  them- — that  they  too,  as  well  as  the  publicans  * 
and  sinners,  were  invited  and  summoned  to  leave  their  low,  poor,  and 
formal  service,  "  the  elements  of  the  world"  (Gal.  iv.  3),  and  to  enter 
into  the  glorious  liberties  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ — to  be  present  at  that 
spiritual  festival  wherein  he  should  manifest  his  glory,  changing  the 
weak  and  watery  elements  of  that  old  dispensation  into  the  generous  and 
gladdening  wine  of  the  new.     (John  ii.  1-11.) 

That,  it  is  true,  of  which  we  have  here  only  an  uncertain  intimation, 
the  refusing,  and  on  these  grounds,  to  go  in,  was  fearfully  fulfilled  and 
on  the  largest  scale,  when  the  Jews  in  the  apostolic  times  refused  to  take 

*  Augustine,  on  these  words,  says:  Sic  enim  perfectis  et  purgatis  ac  jam 
immortalibus  filii.s  habentur  omnia  ut  sint  omnium  singula,  et  omnia  singulorum ; 
ut  enim  cupiditas  nihil  sine  angustia,,  ita  nihil  cum  angustia,  caritas  tenet. 


IS 


THE  PRODIGAL  SON.  343 

part  in  the  great  festival  of  reconciliation,  with  which  the  Gentile  world's 
incoming  into  the  kingdom  was  being  celebrated.  How  may  we  read 
all  through  the  Acts,  as  especially  xiii.  45;  xiv.  19;  xvii.  5,  13;  xviii. 
12,  a  commentary  on  this  statement, — He  would  not  go  in,  because  his 
brother  was  received  so  freely  with  music  and  with  dancing.  If  he  had 
been  submitted  first  to  a  painful  apprenticeship  of  the  law,  if  he  too  had 
been  sent  to  work  in  the  field,  it  might  have  been  another  thing.  (Acts 
XV.  1.)  But  that  he  should  be  thus  made  free  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  ^ 
be  brought  into  the  festival  at  once — this  was  more  than  they  could  bear.' 
Numbers  staid  openly  and  sullenly  without.  Others,  as  the  Ebionites, 
only  pretended  to  go  in,  or  went  in  under  a  mistaken  supposition  that 
it  should  be  as  in  their  narrow  hearts  they  desired,  and  discovering 
their  error,  presently  withdrew  themselves  again.*  At  the  same  time 
we  Gentiles  must  not  forget  that  the  whole  matter  will  be  reversed  at 
the  end  of  the  present  dispensation,  and  that  we  shall  be  in  danger  then 
of  playing  the  part  of  the  elder  brother,  and  shall  do  so,  if  we  grudge  at 
the  largeness  of  the  grace  bestowed  upon  the  Jew,  who  is  now  the 
prodigal  feeding  upon  husks  far  away  from  his  Father's  house,  j 

*  Augustine  (Serm.  Inedd.)  :  Irascitur  fratcr  major  .  .  .  Stomachati  sunt  Judaei 
venire  gentes  de  tanto  compendio,  nullis  impositis  oneribus  legis,  non  dolore  cir- 
cumcisionis  carnalis,  in  pcccato  accipere  baptismum  salutarem. 

•f"  Cajetan's  view  of  the  elder  brother  and  his  anger  is  very  interesting,  and  I  am 
not  aware  that  any  interpreter,  except  indeed  Jerome,  and  he  but  slightly,  has 
brought  it  forward.  He  speaks  first  of  the  joy  and  consolation  which  the  penitent 
sinner  often  finds  at  his  first  return  unto  God ; — these  are  set  forth  by  the  music 
and  dancing, — for  him  all  the  glories  of  the  Gospel  have  the  freshness  of  novelty, 
and,  for  a  while,  an  overpowering  gladness,  which  they  cannot  have  for  him  who 
has  ever  continued  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord.  The  joy  of  the  latter  has  indeed  been 
infinitely  greater  than  this  one  burst  of  gladness,  but  it  has  been  spread  over  a  far 
larger  space  of  time : — so  that  seeing  the  other's  exultation,  he  may  be  tempted 
for  a  moment  to  a.sk,  with  a  transient  feeling  of  discontent,  why  to  him  also  is  not 
given  this  burst  of  exulting  joy  1  why  for  him  the  fatted  calf  has  never  been  slain  1 
— But  the  answer  is,  because  he  has  been  ever  with  his  father,  because  his  father's 
possessions  are,  and  have  been  always,  his.  His  joy  therefore  is  soberer  and  more 
solid, — not  the  suddenly  swelling  mountain  cataract,  but  tlie  deej),  tliougli  smooth 
and  silent,  river :  and  what  is  given  to  the  other,  is  given  to  him  just  because  he  is 
a  beginner.  And  Cajetan  concludes  his  very  interesting  explanation  of  the  whole 
parable  with  these  words :  Adverte  hie,  prudens  lector,  Deum  (iuandoi[ue  noviter 
poenitentes  afficere  magna  consolatione  interni  gaudii,  donee  firmcntur  in  via  Del; . . 
haec  autem  non  sunt  majoris  perfectionis  fructus,  sed  deiicia;  quaMlam  sen  blanditiae 
ccelestis  Patris,  quaj  perfectioribus  multis  negantur.  This  view  was  a  very  favorite 
one  with  the  Mystics,  who  observed  how  in  the  festivals  the  first  and  eighth  days, 
that  is,  their  beginnings  and  their  glorious  consummations,  were  commonly  the 
days  of  chieftest  gladness,  and  they  compare  these  joys  to  sugared  dainties,  with 
which  those  who  are  as  it  were  children  in  spiritual  things,  are  first  allured  into 
Christ's  school.    Volraar  (De  Sjnrit.  Perfect.)  uses  a  like  image :  Ilaec  itaque  dcvo- 


344  THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 

tionis  gratia  infantibus  dari  solet,  ut  ad  bona  opera  per  earn  incitentur,  quemadmo- 
di»in  venaticis  canibus  in  principle  solet  gustus  ferarum  captarum  praeberi,  ut  ad  ve- 
nanduni  eo  fortlCis  insistant.— Before  leaving  this  parable,  I  would  just  take  notice 
of  a  very  interesting  allegory,  called  indeed  itself,  but  incorrectly,  a  parable,  found- 
ed upon  this  present  one,  which  appears  among  the  works  of  St.  Bernard,  but  is  by 
his  Benedictine  editors  (v.  1,  p.  1251)  attributed  to  some  other  author. 


XXV. 
THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

Luke  xvi.  1-9. 

This  parable,  whereof  no  one,  who  has  seriously  considered  it,  can  un- 
derrate the  difficulties, — difficulties  which  multiply  rather  than  disap- 
pear the  closer  the  parable  is  searched  into, — which  Cajotan  found  so 
great  that  he  gave  up  the  matter  in  despair,  affirming  a  solution  impos- 
sible,— has  been  the  subject 'of  manifold,  and  those  the  most  opposite, 
interpretations.  I  cannot  doubt,  however,  that  many  interpreters  have, 
so  to  speak,  "  overrun  their  game,"  and  that  we  have  here  a  parable  of 
Christian  prudence,  Christ  exhorting  us,  if  I  may  so  say,  to  use  the  world 
and  the  world's  goods  in  a  manner  against  itself,  and  for  God.  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  give  a  complete  account  of  all  the  interpretations  to  which 
it  has  been  submitted ;  since  that  would  be  an  endless  task,*  but  as  I 
go  through  the  parable  shall  note  what  parts  of  it  those  interpreters, 
who  have  the  best  right  to  be  heard,  have  considered  its  key-words,  and 
the  meanings  which  they  have  made  the  whole  parable  to  render  up, 
noting  at  the  same  time  what  seem  the  weak  and  unsatisfactory  points 
in  those  explanations  which  I  shall  reject. 

The  Lord,  having  finished  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  did  not 
break  ofi^  the  conversation,  but, — it  is  probable,  after  a  short  pause,  which 
he  allowed  that  his  words  might  sink  down  into  the  hearts  of  his  hearers, 
— resumed,  addressing  his  words,  however,  not  any  more  to  the  gain- 
sayers  and  opposers, — not  to  the  Pharisees,  but  to  those  who  heard  him 
gladly  and  willingly, — to  " Ids  disciples"  as  we  are  (ver.  1 )  expressly 
told.  By  " ]iis  discipks"  we  must  understand  not  exclusively  the  twelve 
(see  Luke  vi.  13)  nor  yet  on  the  other  hand  the  multitude,  in  a  certain 

*  Schreiter,  in  a  work  entirely  devoted  to  tliis  parable  {ExpUf.  Parable  de 
improbo  (Earn.  Descriptin ;  Lips.  180.3),  gives  an  api)alliiig  li.st  of  explanations 
ofFere<l.  and  a  brief  analysis  and  judgment  of  them  all;  but  I  have  not  been  able 
to  derive  much  assistajice  from  the  book. 


I 


346  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

degree  well  affected  to  the  doctrine  and  person  of  Christ,  yet  at  the 
same  time  hanging  loosely  upon  him, — following  him  from  place  to  place, 
but  with  minds  not  as  yet  made  up  to  join  themselves  without  reserve 
to  him  as  to  their  master  and  lord : — rather  the  whole  body  of  those  who 
had  attached  themselves  to  be  taught  of  him,  whom  his  word  had  found 
out  in  the  deep  of  their  spirits,  and  who  having  left  the  world's  service, 
had  decidedly  passed  over  into  the  ranks  of  his  people.  To  them,  to  the 
'■'■  disciples'''  so  understood,  the  parable  was  addressed,  and  for  them 
meant,  since  it  is  scarcely  probable,  as  some  would  have  it,  that  the 
Lord  was  speaking  to  them,  but  at  the  Pharisees.  These  last,  it  is  true, 
were  also  hearers  of  the  Lord's  words  (ver.  14),  but  the  very  mention 
of  them  as  such  excludes  them  from  being  the  persons  to  whom  it  was 
primarily  addressed.  The  Lord  may  have  intended, — it  would  seem 
most  likely  did  intend, — some  of  his  shafts  to  glance  off  upon  them,  while 
yet  it  was  not  at  them  that  they  were  originally  aimed.  We  shall  pre- 
sently see  that  in  relation  to,  at  least,  one  of  the  expositions  which  are 
offered,  it  will  be  important  to  have  fixed  in  our  minds  for  whom  above 
all  the  parable  was  meant. 

"  There  was  a  certain  rich  man^  which  had  a  steivard^^  not  a  land- 
bailiff*  merely,  but  a  ruler  over  all  his  goods,  such  as  was  Eliezer  in 
the  house  of  Abraham  (Gen.  xxiv.  2-12),  and  Joseph  in  the  house  of 
Potiphar  (Gen.  xxxix.  4).  It  was  one  of  the  main  duties  of  such  a 
steward  to  dispense  their  portions  of  food  to  the  different  members  of  the 
household  (Luke  xii.  42),  to  give  the  servants  or  slaves  their  portion  in 
due  season,  a  duty  which  we  sometimes  find  undertaken  by  the  diligent 
mistress  of  a  house  (Prov.  xxxi.  15).  '■'■And  tlie  same  ivas  accused 
unto  him  that  he  Juxd  wasted  his  goods."]    This  of  the  lord's  needing  that 

*  And  therefore  not  villicus,  which  tlie  Vulgate  has,  nor  yet  dispensator,  which 
is  a  cashier.  The  inaccuracy  of  the  first  expression  is  noted  and  corrected  by 
Jerome  {Ep.  121,  qu.  6),  who  at  the  same  time  gives  a  good  account  of  what  were 
the  steward's  duties :  Villicus  proprife  villaj  gubernator  est,  unde  nomen  accepit. 
OIkov6ixos  autem  tarn  pecuniae  quim  frugum,  et  omnium  quae  dominus  possidet, 
dispensator.  See  too  Ad  Eustoch,  Ep.  22,  c.  35,  for  the  duties  of  the  ceconomus, 
in  the  Egyptian  monasteries ;  and  for  much  information  on  the  subjeet,  Mr.  Gres- 
well'.s  Exp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  4,  p.  3,  and  Becker's  Charikks,  v.  2,  p.  37.  Procurator 
would  be  the  best  translation.  (See  Becker's  Gallus,  v.  1,  p.  109.)  In  the  pictures 
lately  discovered  in  the  Egyptian  tombs,  the  steward  is  seen  often  with  all  his 
writing  materials,  taking  an  exact  note  of  the  amount  of  the  harvest,  before  it  is 
stored  in  the  granaries  (Hengstenberg's  Buchcr  Moses,  imd  Mgypten,  p.  23) ;  which 
is  something  to  the  point  here,  as  the  same  person  would  naturally  have  the  over- 
sight of  the  outgoings  as  well. 

f  There  does  not  seem  any  reason  why  we  should  have  shared  the  error  of  the 
Vulgate,  quasi  dissipdsset,  when  it  is  plain  from  the  present  {ws  Siaa-KopTrlCuv)  of  the 
original,  that  it  is  no  past,  but  an  actual  and  present,  unfaithfulness  to  his  trust 
with  which  he  is  charged. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  347 

the  ill  conduct  of  his  steward  should  come  to  his  ears  through  a  third 
party,  belongs  to  the  earthly  setting  forth  of  the  truth :  yet  it  finds  its 
parallel,  Gen.  xviii.  30,  31.  There  is  not  the  slightest  ground  for  sup- 
posing, as  some  have  done,  that  the  steward  was  falsely  and  calum- 
niously  accused.  It  lies  not  in  the  word,  for  the  same  is  used  Dan.  iii.  8, 
where  it  is  said  that  certain  Chaldajans  came  near  and  accused  the  Jews; 
yet  it  was  not  falsely  that  they  accused  them  of  having  refused  to  wor- 
ship the  golden  image ;  nor  had  Daniel  been  calumniously  accused  of 
having  knelt  and  prayed,  and  given  thanks  before  his  God  ; — malignantly 
it  might  be,  and  in  each  case  was,  and  so  much  lies  in  the  word,  but  not 
falsely.*  No  support  then  is  to  be  found  in  this  word  for  their  view, 
who  would  in  a  greater  or  less  measure  clear  the  character  of  the  stew- 
ard.f  Indeed,  his  own  words  (ver.  3)  seem  an  implicit  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  guilt :  he  proposes  not  to  make  any  defence,  and  his  after 
conduct,  his  scheme  for  helping  himself  out  of  his  difficulties,  will  allow 
no  conclusion,  but  that  the  accusation,  though  it  might  have  been 
brought  against  him  by  some  enemy  and  from  malicious  motives,  yet 
was  one  with  most  entire  foundation  in  the  truth.     The  accusation  was, 


*  In  both  places  the  same  word  {BiafidWu)  is  used  in  the  Septuagint,  by  which 
Luku  here  expresses  the  accusation  against  the  steward.  Cf.  2  Mace.  iii.  11. 
He  was  as  the  Vulgate  has  it,  difiamatus,  but  not  in  our  English  use  of  the  word, 
defa7ticd. 

t  As  for  instance  Schleiermacher,  who  says :  "  The  right  view  of  this  parable  is 
to  bu  suro  very  much  perverted,  if  the  steward  who,  after  all,  has  not  committed 
any  breach  of  trust  (!)  on  his  own  account,  nor  was  charged  with  it.  is  notwith- 
standing to  be  termed  uikou.  t.  aSt/cios,  and  we  will  not  make  up  our  minds  to  leave 
olKovift-os  without  an  epithet,  and  to  refer  this  d5i«ias  to  hrrivitrtv :  [against  this 
construction  see  Winer's  Grammatik,  p.  185:]  and  if  the  master  who  treats  his 
servant  in  so  very  arbitrary  a  way,  and  discharges  him,  without  inquiry,  upon  a 
secret  information,  and  who  besides  discovers  no  higher  measure  by  which  he 
judges  of  human  actions  than  prudence,  if  this  character  is  all  along  considered  a 
blameless  man."  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  see  what  Schleiermacher  would  gain 
for  his  scheme  by  the  altered  construction.  "  The  Lord  praised  the  steward  for 
his  injustice,"  comes  pretty  nearly  to  the  same  thing  as,  "  Th£  Lord  praised  the  un- 
just steward ;"  and  with  such  analogous  phrases  as  fiafiuva  tyis  aSiKlas.  Kpir^s  r^s 
iiiKias  (Luke  xviii.  6),  uKpoar^s  iiTi\7\fffjiovris  (Jam.  i.  25).  he  will  scarcely  persuade 
that  the  ordinary  and  natural  collocation  of  the  words  is  to  be  abandoned,  even  to 
help  out  his  marvellous  interpretation  of  the  ])arable,  according  to  which  the  rich 
householder  is  the  Romans,  the  steward  the  publicans,  and  the  debtors  the  Jewish 
people;  the  lesson  it  contains  being.  If  the  publicans  show  themselves  mild  and 
indulgent  towards  their  nation,  the  Romans  will  in  their  hearts  praise  them,  and 
they  who  have  now  lost  all  favor  with  their  countrymen,  will  by  tlu-m  be  favorably 
received.  But  in  what  sense,  it  may  be  asked,  could  a  coming  into  favor  with  the 
Jewi.sh  peo])le  be  termed  a  reception  into  everlasting  habitations?  this  last  is 
somewhat  too  strong  a  phra.se  for  any  thing  which  they  could  do  for  those  who 
showed  themselves  favorably  disposed  towards  them. 


348  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

that  he  wasted  or  scattered  his  master's  goods, — that  he  administered 
them  without  due  fidelity,  turning  them  to  private  ends,  laying  them  out 
for  himself,  and  not  for  his  lord.  This  last,  when  the  charges  against 
his  steward  were  brought  to  his  ears,  "  called  him  and  said  tmto  him^ 
Hoio  is  it  that  I  Jiear  this  of  tJiee  ?"  This  is  not  examination,  but  rather 
the  expostulation  of  indignant  surprise, — " of  thee*  whom  I  had  trusted 
so  far, — to  whom  I  had  committed  so  much :  GHve  an  account  of  thy 
stewardshi2'),for  tlvou  tnayest  he  no  longer  steward!''' 

They  who,  like  Anselm,  see  in  the  parable  the  rise  and  growth  and 
fruits  of  repentance,  lay  much  stress  upon  these  words,  "  How  is  it  tliat 
I  hear  this  of  thee?"  This  remonstrance  is  for  them  the  voice  of  Grod 
speaking  to  the  sinner,  and  convincing  him  of  sin,  bringing  home  to  his 
conscience  that  he  has  had  a  stewardship  and  has  been  abusing  it ;  and 
the  threat,  thou  mayest  be 7io  longer  steioard"  is  in  like  manner  a  bring- 
ing home  to  him,  by  sickness  or  by  some  other  means,  that  he  will  soon 
be  removed  from  his  earthly  stewardship,  and  have  to  render  an  account. 
He  feels  that  he  cannot  answer  God  one  thing  in  a  thousand,  and  that 
when  once  he  is  thus  removed,  there  will  be  no  help  for  him :  he  cannot 
dig,  for  the  night  will  have  come  in  which  no  man  can  work  :  and  he 
will  be  ashamed  to  beg  for  that  mercy,  which  he  knows  will  then  be 
refused.  Consistently  with  this  view,  they  see  in  the  lowering  of  the 
bills,  not  a  further  and  crowning  act  of  unrighteousness  on  his  part,  but 
the  first  act  of  his  righteousness,  the  dealing  of  one  who  now  seeks, 
while  he  has  time,  to  do  good  with  that  which  is  committed  to  him,  to 
lay  out  the  things  in  his  power  not  with  merely  selfish  aims,  but  in  acts 
of  charity  and  kindness,  to  scatter  for  God  rather  than  for  himself,  to 
heap  up  in  heaven  and  not  on  earth.  The  dishonesty  of  the  act  they 
get  over,  either  by  giving  this  lowering  of  the  bills  altogether  a  mystical 
meaning,  and  so  refusing  to  contemplate  it  in  the  letter  at  all,  or  in  a 
way  of  which  we  shall  presently  have  to  take  notice.  He  is  still  called 
they  say,  the  "  unjust"  steward  (ver.  8),  not  because  he  remains  such, 
but  because  of  his  former  unrighteousness ;  he  bears  that  name  for  the 
encouragement  of  penitents.  It  is  as  much  as  to  say,  Though  he  had 
been  this  unrighteous  ungodly  man  beforetime,  he  yet  obtained  now 
praise  and  commendation  from  his  lord.  He  retained  the  title,  as  did 
Matthew  that  of  "  the  publican"  (Matt.  x.  3),  even  after  he  had  become 
an  apostle  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,!  in  perpetual  remembrance  of  the 


*  Wetstein :  Mirantis ;  de  te !  quem  procuratorem  constitui. 

t  So  the  author  of  a  sermon  in  the  Bencd.  edit,  of  St.  Bernard  (v.  2,  p.  714), 
who  gives  this  as  the  sura  of  the  parable :  Multa  laude  est  dignus,  qui  relicto  errore 
pristixiaa  conversationis,  diviti  Deo  satisfaciens  redit  ad  gratiam :  and  Anselm 
{Horn.  12),  who,  however,  sees  in  the  steward  only  an  unfaithful  ruler  in  the 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  349 

grace  of  God  which  had  found  him  in  that  mean  employment,  and  out  of 
that  had  raised  him  to  so  great  a  dignity  ;  as  in  like  manner  we  have 
Zenas  the  lawyer  (Tit.  iii.  13);  Rahab  the  Juxrlot  (Heb.  xi.  31);  Simon 
tJve  leper  (Matt.  xxvi.  6) ;  not  that  such  they  were  now,  but  that  such 
they  once  had  been.  But  there  is  nothing  in  the  man's  counsels  with 
himself  that  marks  the  least  change  of  mind,  the  slightest  repentance — 
no  recognition  of  guilt,  no  acknowledgment  of  a  trust  abused,  no  desire 
expressed  henceforward  to  be  found  faithful,  but  only  an  utterance  of 
selfish  anxiety  concerning  his  future  lot,  of  fear  lest  poverty  and  distress 
may  come  upon  him ;  and  the  explanation,  however  ingenious,  of  his 
being  still  characterized  (ver.  8)  as  the  "  wiju&V  steward,  is  quite  un- 
satisfactory. 

But  now  follow  his  counsels  with  himself,  and  first  his  expression  of 
utter  inability  any  where  to  find  help :  his  past  softness  of  life  has  unfit- 
ted him  for  labor :  his  pride  forbids  his  begging.  Yet  this  helplessness 
endures  not  long.  He  knows  what  he  will  do ;  and  has  rapidly  con- 
ceived a  plan  whereby  to  make  provision  against  that  time  of  need  and 
destitution  which  is  now  so  near  at  hand.  If  his  determination  is  not 
honest,  it  is  at  any  rate  promptly  taken  ;  and  this  is  part,  no  doubt,  of 
the  skill  for  which  he  gets  credit, — that  he  was  not  brought  to  a  non- 
plus, but  quickly  found  a  way  of  escape  from  his  distresses.  "  I  am  re- 
solved ulmt  to  do.  tluiZ  when  I  am  put  out  of  tlve.  stewardship*  they  may 
receive  me  into  tJieir  houses"  as  one  from  whom  they  have  received  kind- 
nesses, and  who,  therefore,  may  trust  to  find  hospitable  entertainment 
among  them, — a  miserable  prospect,  as  the  son  of  Sirach  declares  (xxix. 
22-28).  yet  better  than  utter  destitution  and  want.  Hereupon  follows 
the  collusion  between  him  and  his  lord's  debtors.  They  owed,  it  seems, 
to  the  householder,  at  least  the  two  whose  cases  are  instanced,  and  who 
are  evidently  brought  forward  as  representatives  of  many  more, — just 
as  but  tJirec  servants  are  named  out  of  the  ten  (Luke  xix.  13),  to  whom 
pounds  had  been  intrusted, — the  one  a  hundred  measures  of  oil,  and 
the  oth(M-  a  hundred  measures  of  wheat.  It  is  not  likely  that  they 
were  tenants  of  his.  who  paid  their  rents  in  kind,  which  rents  were  now 
by  the  steward  lowered,  and  the  leases  tampered  with;  the  name  '■'■debt- 
01"  peenis  not  to  point  that  way      Again,  the  enormous  amountf  of  the 

Churrli  not  every  man  to  whom  a  dispensation  h.as  been  committed,  which  he  has 
been  abusing-; — he  says:  Laudaii  4  Domino  meruit;  et  nos  ergo  laudemiis  eum. . . . 
nee  eum  in  aliqno,  jjriusquam  correctus  est,  aiideamus  reprehendere,  ut  hicc  i)nte- 
mus  in  his  qu,-B  er^a  dcbitores  e^it  domino  fraudem  fecisse,  sed  potius  credanius 
eum  in  his  luera  Domini  sai  ])nidenti  consilio  qujesisse,  et  ejus  vohintatem 
implfisse. 

*  In  the  Vulgat* :  Amotus  h  villicatione ;  but  Tertulhan  in  far  happier  Latin : 
ab  actu  snnunotus. 

t  The  word  •measure"  in  our  translation,  which  may  be  a  small  or  a  large 


350  ■     THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

oil  and  wheat,  both  of  them  costly  articles  (see  Prov.  xxi.  17),  which 
is  due,  makes  it  equally  unlikely  that  these  '■'•debtors'^  were  poorer 
neighbors  or  dependents,  whom  the  rich  householder  had  supplied 
with  means  of  living  in  the  shape  of  food, — not  however  as  a  gift,  but 
as  a  loan,  taking  from  them  an  acknowledgment,  and  meaning  to  be  re- 
paid, when  they  had  ability.  Rather  we  might  assume  the  foregoing 
transactions,  by  which  these  men  came  into  the  relation  of  debtors  to 
the  rich  man,  to  have  been  of  this  kind, — that  he,  having  large  posses- 
sions, and  therefore  large  incomings  from  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  had 
sold,  through  his  steward,  a  portion  of  such  upon  credit  to  these  debt- 
ors,— merchants,  or  other  factors,  and  they  had  not  as  yet  made  their 
payments.  They  had  given,  however,  their  bills,  or  notes  of  hand,  ac- 
knowledging the  amount  which  they  had  received,  in  which  amount  they 
owned  themselves  to  stand  indebted  to  him.  These,  which  had  remained 
in  the  steward's  keeping,  he  now  returns  to  them, — •"  Take  thy  bill"  or 
"  Take  back  thy  bill"* — bidding  them  to  alter  them,  or  substitute  oth- 
ers in  their  room,  in  which  they  confess  themselves  to  have  received 
much  smaller  amounts  of  oil  and  wheat  than  was  actually  the  case,  and 
consequently  to  be  so  much  less  in  the  rich  man's  debt  than  they  truly 
were.  To  one  debtor  he  remits  half,  to  another  the  fifth  of  his  debt ;  by 
these  different  proportions  teaching  us,  say  many,  that  charity  is  not  to 
be  a  blind  profuseness,  exhibited  without  respect  of  the  needs,  greater 
or  smaller,  of  those  who  are  its  objects,  but  ever  to  be  exercised  with 
consideration  and  discretionf — that  the  hand  is  to  be  opened  to  some 
more  widely  than  to  others. 

In  this  lowering  of  the  bills,  VitringaJ  finds  the  key  of  the  parable, 
and  proposes  the  following  interpretation,  which  deserves  to  be  recorded, 
if  for  nothing  else,  yet  for  its  exceeding  ingenuity.  The  rich  man  is 
God,  the  steward  the  Pharisees,  or  rather  all  the  ecclesiastical  leaders  of 
the  people,  tc  whom  was  committed  the  administration  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  who  were  stewards  of  its  mysteries.     But  they  were  accused  by 

quantity,  fails  to  intimate  this.  Better  Tyndal  and  Cranmer,  who  give  it,  "  tuns  of 
oil"  (the  Rhemish,  pipes),  and  ^^ quarters  of  wheat."  It  is  exactly  this  quantity, 
one  hundred  cors  of  wheat,  which  in  one  of  the  apocryphal  gospels,  where  every 
thing  is  on  a  gigantic  scale,  as  with  those  whose  only  notion  of  greatness  is  size, 
we  are  told  that  the  child  Jesus  received  in  return  for  a  single  grain  of  wheat 
which  he  had  planted  in  the  ground.     (Thilo's  Cod.  Apocryph.,  p.  302.) 

*  rpci/iyUa  =  x*'P'^'>'pa<|)o;' (Col.  ii.  14)  =  ypo/xjuaTeroi/  XP^"^^  &ii.o\oyt]TiK6v,  by  the 
Vulgate  hajipily  translated,  cautio.  See  the  Diet,  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v. 
Interest  of  money,  p.  524. 

t  Thus  Gregory  the  Great,  who  quotes  from  Gen.  iv. :  Si  rectfe  offeras,  et  non 
rectfe  dividas,  pecc^sti. 

X  Erldar.  d.  Parab.,  p.  921,  seq.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  standing  inter*- 
pretation  of  the  Cocceian  school,  for  see  Deyling's  Obss.  Sac.,  v.  5,  p.  335. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  35 1 

the  prophets  (see  for  instance  Ezek.  xxxiv.  2 ;  Mai.  ii.  8),  and  lastly  by 
Christ  himself,  that  they  neglected  their  stewardship,  used  the  power 
committed  to  them,  not  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  for  purposes  of  self- 
honor — that  they  scattered  his  goods.  They  feel  the  justice  of  this  ac- 
cusation, and  that  they  are  not  in  the  grace  of  their  Lord,  and  only  out- 
wardly belong  to  his  kingdom.  Therefore  they  now  seek  to  make  them- 
selves friends  of  others,  of  the  debtors  of  their  Lord,  of  sinful  men, — and 
this  they  do,  acting  as  though  they  still  possessed  authority  in  the  things 
of  his  kingdom.  And  the  way  by  which  they  seek  to  make  these  friends 
is,  by  lowering  the  standard  of  righteousness  and  obedience,  inventing 
convenient  glosses  for  the  evading  of  the  strictness  of  God's  law,  allowing 
men  to  say,  •'  It  is  a  gift"  (Matt.  xv.  5),  suffering  them  to  put  away  their 
wives  on  any  slight  excuse  (Luke  xvi.  18),  and  by  various  devices  mak- 
ing slack  the  law  of  God  (Matt,  xxiii.  16) ; — thus  obtaining  for  themselves 
favor  and  an  interest  with  men,  and  so  enabling  themselves,  although 
God's  grace  was  withdrawn  from  them,  still  to  keep  their  hold  on  men, 
and  to  retain  their  advantages,  their  honors,  and  their  peculiar  privileges. 
This  interpretation  has  one  attraction,  that  it  gives  a  distinct  meaning 
to  the  lowering  of  the  bills, — "  Write  ffty"  "  Write  fourscore ;" — which 
very  few  others  do.  The  moral  will  then  be  no  other  than  is  commonly 
and  rightly  drawn  from  the  parable ;  Be  prudent  as  they,  as  these  chil- 
dren of  the  present  world,  but  provide  for  yourselves  not  temporary 
friends,  but  everlasting  habitations  :  they  use  heavenly  things  for  earthly 
objects ;  but  do  you  reverse  the  case,  and  show  how  earthly  things  may 
be  used  for  heavenly.* 

*  "With  the  interpretation  of  these  words  as  being  a  lowering  the  standard  of 
obedience  very  nearly  agrees  the  use  of  the  parable  which  is  made;  in  the  Liber 
S.  Joannis  Apocn/pkus,  a  religious  book  of  the  Albigenses,  republished  in  Tiiilo's 
Codex  Apncnjpkus,  p.  884,  seq.  It  is  with  the  very  question  which  the  steward 
here  puts  to  the  debtors,  "Haw  much,  owest  t/iou  unto  my  lord?"  and  with  the 
bidding  '■  Write  fifty,"  "  Write  fourscore,"  that  Satan  is  introduced  as  tempting  and 
seducing  the  inferior  angels  (blandiendo  angelos  invisibilis  Patris).  The  very  in- 
genious exposition  of  the  parable  by  Gaudentius,  bishop  of  Brescia,  a  cotemporary 
of  St.  Ambrose,  is  in  the  same  line.  He  says,  Villicus  iniquitatis  Diabolus  in- 
telligendus  est,  qui  in  seculo  relictus  est,  ut  imniunitatem  [immanitatera?]  ejus 
villici  fugientes  ad  pietatem  Dei  suppliciter  curranuis.  Hie  dissipat  facultates  Do- 
mini, quaiido  in  nos  grassatur,  qui  jiortio  Domini  suraus.  Hie  excogitat  quoniodo 
valeat  debitores  Domini,  h.  e..  peccatis  involutos  non  solum  aperto  pradio  persequi, 
sed  sub  obtentu  fallacis  benevolentije,  blanda.  fraude  decipere,  quo  magis  cum  in 
domes  suas  falsd  benignitate  seducti  recipiant,  cum  ipso  in  ajternuni  judicandi  .  .  . 
Hie  debita  conservorum  suorum  relaxare  se  falso  i)romittit  dum  vel  in  fide  vel  in 
opere  peccantibus  variam  poUicetur  indulgentiam.  .  .  .  Laudat  [Salvator]  astu- 
tiam  villici  minaciter  siniul  et  jirovidoiiter.  Minaciter  (]uideni.  ciini  vocabulo 
iniquitatis  pessimam  Diaboli  lu-udciitiam  condenuiat:  providcnter  auteni,  dum 
contra  arguraentorum  ejus  consilia  discipulos  audientes  conlinnat,  ut  omni  cautelA 
atque  prudentift.  tarn  callido  atque  prudent!  inimico  repugneiit. 


352  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

Connected  with  this  view  is  that  of  the  writer  of  an  elaborate  article 
in  a  modern  Grermari  Review.*  He  conceives  the  parable  was  meant 
for  the  scribes  and  Pharisees — only  that  he  makes  it  to  contain  counsel 
for  them, — the  unjust  steward  is  set  forth  for  them  to  copy  ;  while  Vi- 
tringa  made  it  to  contain  a  condemnation  of  them.  They  were  the 
stewards  and  administrators  in  a  dispensation  which  was  now  coming  to 
a  close ;  and  when  in  its  room  the  kingdom  of  Christ  was  set  up,  then 
their  much  abused  stewardship  would  be  taken  away  from  them.  The 
writer  finds  in  the  parable  an  exhortation  to  them,  that  in  the  little  while 
that  should  intervene  between  the  announcement  and  actual  execution 
of  this  purpose  of  God's,  they  should  cultivate  that  spirit  which  alone 
would  give  them  an  entrance  '■'■into  everlasting  liahitations^''  into  the 
kingdom  not  to  be  moved, — the  spirit,  that  is,  which  they  so  much  lacked, 
of  mildness  and  love  and  meekness  toward  all  men,  their  fellow  sinners. 
•  This  spirit  and  the  works  which  it  would  prompt,  he  affirms,  are  justly 
set  forth  under  the  image  of  the  remission  of  debts  f — and  those,  debts 
due  to  another,  since  it  is  against  God  that  primarily  every  sin  is  com- 
mitted. Such  a  spirit  as  this,  of  love  and  gentleness  toward  all  men, 
flows  out  of  the  recognition  of  our  own  guilt,  which  recognition  the  writer 
finds  in  the  absence  on  the  steward's  part  of  all  attempts  to  justify  or 
excuse  himself  The  same  temper  which  would  prompt  them  to  these 
works  of  love  and  grace,  would  fit  them  also  for  an  entrance  into  the 
everlasting  habitations,  the  coming  kingdom,  which,  unlike  that  dispen- 
sation now  ready  to  vanish  away,  should  endure  for  ever.  But  how 
shall  this  interpretation  be  reconciled  with  the  words,  "  He  said  also 
unto  his  disciplesP  with  which  the  Evangelist  introduced  the  parable? J 

*  Zyro,  in  the  Theol.  Stud.  u.  Kritt.  for  1831,  p.  776.  He  had  been  however, 
though  he  seems  not  to  know  it,  long  ago  anticipated  by  Salmeron  (Serm.  in 
Evang.  Par.,  p.  231) :  Quia  enim  Scribae  et  Pharis£ei  cum  lege  et  sacerdotio  in 
promptu  erant.  ut  deficerent  .  .  hortatur  Dominus  ut  dent  operam,  ne  austerfe  cum 
peccatoribus  procedant,  .  .  ut  ita  sibi  prseparent  amicos,  qui  eos  in  Evangelium 
recipiant. 

t  Weisse  {Erang.  Gesc/i.,  v.  2,  p.  162,  seq.)  brings  forward  as  though  it  were  a 
great  discovery  of  his  own,  and  all  that  was  wanted  for  the  easy  explanation  of  the 
parable,  this  view,  that  the  lowering  of  the  bills  is  the  image  here  under  which, 
not  acts  of  bounty  and  love  with  the  temporal  mammon,  but  the  spiritual  act  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins,  is  represented.  He  o^\^ls,  however,  that  he  cannot  bring 
this  into  agreement  with  ver.  9,  "  Make  to  yourselves  friends  of  the  mammon  of  un- 
righteousness" and  the  words  in  Italics  he  therefore  includes  in  brackets,  being 
"  convinced  that  Jesus  never  spoke  them  !" 

:j:  Not  very  unlike  this,  is  the  explanation  given  by  Tertullian  {De  Fugd  in 
Persec,  c.  13).  only  that  he  makes  the  exhortation  to  be  addressed  to  the  entire 
Jewish  people,  and  not  to  the  spiritual  chiefs  of  the  nation  alone  :  Facite  autem 
vobis  amicos  de  mammona, ;  quomodo  intelligendum  sit  parabola  prasmissa  doceat, 
ad  populum  Judaicum  dicta,  qui  commissam  sibi  rationem  Domini  cilm  mal6 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  353 

it  will  then  plainly  be  addressed  not  to  them,  but  to  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees. 

But  to  return  ; — with  these  new  acts  of  unrighteousness  this  child  of 
the  present  world  filled  up  the  short  interval  between  his  threatened  and 
his  actual  destitution  of  his  office.  It  is  not  said  that  he  attempted  to 
conceal  the  fraudulent  arrangement  which  he  was  making,  or  that  he 
called  his  lord's  debtors  together  secretly — whether  it  was  that  he  trusted 
that  they  would  keep  counsel,  being  held  together  by  a  common  interest 
and  by  the  bands  of  a  common  iniquity, — or  whether  he  thus  falsified 
the  accounts,  fearing  neither  God  nor  man,  careless  whether  the  trans- 
action were  blown  abroad  or  not,  as  being  now  a  desperate  man,  who  had 
no  character  to  lose,  and  who  was  determined  to  brave  the  matter,  confi- 
dent that  there  would  be  no  redress  for  his  lord,  when  the  written  docu- 
ments testified  against  him.  This  latter  seems  to  me  the  most  probable 
supposition — that  the  thing  was  done  openly  and  in  the  face  of  day,*  and 
that  the  arrangement  was  such  as,  from  some  cause  or  other,  being  once 
completed,  could  not  be  broken,  but  must  be  permitted  to  stand.  Were 
it  meant  to  have  been  a  secret  ti-ansaction,  the  lord's  discovery  of  the 
fraud  would  hardly  have  been  passed  over,  and  the  steward  would 
scarcely  have  obtained  for  a  contrivance  which  proved  so  clumsy  that  it 
was  presently  seen  through  and  detected,  even  the  limited  praise  which 
he  does  obtain  as  a  skilful  adapter  of  his  means  to  his  ends.  Least  of 
all  would  he  have  obtained  such  praise,  if  it  had  depended  merely  on  the 
forbearance  of  his  master,  in  the  case  of  discovery  being  made,  which 
the  event  proved  must  have  been  regarded  as  probable  from  the  begin- 
ning, whether  the  arrangement  should  be  allowed  to  stand  good  or  not. 
Such  forbearance  could  not  have  been  counted  on,  even  though  the 
wordsf  of  the  lord  should  lead  us,  in  the  present  instance,  to  assume  that 

administrasset,  deberet  de  mammonas  hominibus,  quod  nos  eramus,  amicos  sibi 
potiu.s  i)r()spicere  qufim  iuiniicos,  et  relovarc  nos  a  debitis  pcccatorum,  quibus  Deo 
dotinebamur.  si  nobis  dc  doiniiiicil  rationo  contbrrent,  ut  cCim  coepis.set  ab  hujus 
deflcen;  gratia,  ad  nostram  tidcni  refugicntcs  rociperontur  in  tabernacula  a;torna. 

*  His  words  to  the  debtors,  ■  Sit  down  qff,irkly  and  WTito."  may  api)ear  to  some 
charact«ristic  of  a  man  wlio  wislicd  to  bn(Ulle  over  tbe  matter  as  fiist  as  possible, 
for  fear  >>f  discovery: — so  Bengal  explains  them, — Toxea>s,  raptim,  furtim;  and 
Maldonatus:  Quod  dicit  rUd,  lioininis  milii  fraudulonti  ot  malfe  agentis  esse  videtur, 
tiniontis.  \w  in  scelcro  dcprobcndatur.  no  (piis  dum  adulterantur  litterio,  supervoniat. 
But  tbcrt'  is  anotlicr  fair  explanation,  that  they  are  the  words  of  a  man  who  feels 
that  what  is  to  bo  done,  must  be  done  at  once — that  to-day  he  has  means  to  help 
himself  while  to-morrow  they  will  have  passed  from  his  hands.  The  transaction 
was  evidently  not  with  the  debtors,  one  by  one,  apart  from  and  unknown  to  each 
other,  as  is  slightly  but  sufficiently  indicated,  by  the  av  S4  {''And  lAou"),  with 
which  the  steward  begins  his  address  to  the  second. 

t  Jensen,  however,  who  has  a  very  interesting  cs.say  on  this  parable  ( TAco/. 
23 


354  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

he  did  not  allow  the  steward  to  reap  the  full  benefits  which  he  hoped 
from  his  dishonest  scheming. 

But  whether  the  arrangement  was  a  clandestine  one  or  not,  that  it  was 
a  fraudulent  one  seems  beyond  a  doubt :  such,  on  the  face  of  it,  it  is,  and 
any  attempt  to  mitigate,  or  explain  away  the  dishonesty  of  the  act,  is 
hopeless.*  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  and  has  sometimes  been  so,  that  this 
dishonesty  of  the  transaction  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the  parable,  but  an 
inconvenience  arising  from  the  inadequacy  of  earthly  relationships  to  set 
forth  divine.  They  must  fail  somewhere,  and  this  is  the  weak  side  of 
the  earthly  relation  between  a  steward  and  his  lord,  which  renders  it  not 
altogether  a  perfect  type  of  the  relation  existing  between  men  and  God. 
— that  in  the  latter  case,  to  use  Hammond's  words,  "  the  man  hath  lib- 
erty to  use  the  wealth  put  into  his  hands,  so  as  may  be  most  (not  only 
for  his  master's  but. also)  for  his  own  advantage,  namely,  to  his  endless 
reward  in  heaven,  which,  though  it  were  an  injustice  and  falseness  in  a 
servant  here  on  earth,  who  is  altogether  to  consider  his  master's  profit, 
not  his  own,  yet  it  is  duty,  and  that  which  by  the  will  and  command  of 
God  we  are  obliged  to  do,  in  the  execution  of  that  steward's  office  which 
the  rich  man  holds  under  God — and  is  the  only  thing  commended  to  us 
in  this  parable ;  which  is  so  far  from  denominating  him  that  makes  this 
advantage  of  the  treasure  committed  to  him  an  unjust  or  unrighteous 
steward,  in  the  application,  that  it  denominates  him  faithful  {marTos)  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  parable,  and  him  only  false  {adiKos)  thftt  doth  it 

Skid.  u.  Krit.,  1829,  p.  699),  .sees  a  spiritual  significance  in  the  householder's 
forbearing  to  break  the  arrangement — he  says:  "That  which  is  related  of  the 
master, — how  he  regards  the  dealing  of  the  steward, — does  not  blame  it,  nor  stand 
to  his  riglits, — seems  to  me  to  be  the  setting  forth  the  grace  of  God,  through  which, 
instead  of  entering  into  judgment  with  sinful  men,  he  rather  rewards  the  good  in 
them,  which,  according  to  strict  right,  could  not  even  attain  to  secure  them  from 
punishment.  For  he  leaves  the  steward  to  enjoy  the  fruit  of  his  device — and  since, 
after  what  has  been  said  above,  it  cannot  be  conveniently  supposed  that  he  had  no 
right  to  demand  a  strict  reckoning  in  the  matter,  it  only  remains  to  consider  this 
conduct  as  a  voluntary  forbearance  on  his  part." 

*  One  might  say  absurd,  but  that  it  has  been  done  with  so  much  ability  by 
SchuLz  in  an  instructive  little  treatise  ^Ub.  d.  Parabel  von  Verwalter,  Breslau,  1821), 
as  to  redeem  it  from  such  a  charge.  The  ancient  oIkovS/xos,  he  says,  was  one  with 
far  greater  liberty  of  action,  more  uncontrolled  freedom  in  the  administration  of 
the  things  committed  to  him,  than  any  to  whom  we  should  in  modern  times  apply 
the  title  of  steward — and  the  sum  of  his  statement  seems  this  (though  the  compari- 
son is  not  his),  that  his  conduct  at  this  latest  moment  of  his  stewardship,  however 
merely  selfish  it  might  be,  yet  was  no  more  dishonest,  than  it  would  be  dishonest 
on  the  part  of  the  minister  of  a  kingdom,  who  had  hitherto  been  oppressing  the 
people  under  him,  and  administering  the  aflTairs  of  the  kingdom  for  his  o\vn 
interests  and  pleasures,  yet  now,  when  about  to  be  removed  from  his  place  of 
authority,  to  seek  to  win  the  people's  love  and  a  place  in  their  hearts,  by  remitting 
or  lowering  the  heavy  dues  and  taxes  with  which  before  he  had  burdened  them. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  355 

not."  In  worldly  things  there  is  not,  and  there  never  can  be,  such  abso- 
lute identity  of  interests  between  a  master  and  a  servant,  that  a  servant 
dealing  wholly  with  reference  to  his  own  interests,  would  at  the  same  v 
time  forward  in  the  best  manner  his  lord's.  But  our  interests  as  servants 
of  a  heavenly  Lord,  that  is,  our  true  interests,  absolutely  coincide  in  all 
things  with  his ;  so  that  when  we  administer  the  things  committed  to  us 
for  him,  then  we  lay  them  out  also  for  ourselves,  and  when  for  ourselves, 
for  our  lasting  and  eternal  gain,  then  also  for  him. 

'■'^  And  tJie  lord  commended  the  unjust  steward,  because  lie.  had  do7ie 
wisely."  Every  one  who  is  able  to  judge  of  the  construction  of  the  ori- 
ginal, will  at  once  acknowledge  that  it  is  the  lord  of  tJve  steward,  he  who 
has  twice  before  in  the  parable  been  called  by  this  name  (ver.  3,  5),  that 
is  here  meant,  and  not  our  Lord,  who  does  not  begin  to  speak  directly  in 
his  own  person  till  ver.  9 — the  intermediate  verse  being  the  point  of 
transition  from  the  narration  to  the  direct  exhortation.*  The  attempt  to 
substitute  "  cunningly"  for  the  "  wisely"  of  our  translation,  and  so,  by 
limiting  and  lowering  the  commendation  given,  to  evade  the  moral  diffi- 
culty of  the  passage,  cannot  altogether  be  borne  out  by  an  appeal  to  the 
original.  "  Wisely"  may  not  be  the  happiest  word  that  could  have  been 
selected,  and  certainly  is  not,  since  wisdom  is  never  in  Scripture  discon- 
nected from  moral  goodness. f  But  if  more  commendation  is  implied  in 
'■'■  loiscly"  than  the  original  warrants,  in  "cunningly"  there  would  be  less; 
"prudently"  is  clearly  the  word  that  should  have  been  chosen,  and  so| 
in  Wiclif 's  translation  it  was,  though  the  word  has  disappeared  from  all 
our  subsequent  versions.  But  concerning  the  praise  itself,  which  can- 
not be  explained  away  as  though  it  were  admiration  of  the  man's  cun- 
ning, it  is  true  that  none  but  a  mere  malignant,  such  as  the  apostate 
Julian,  would  make  here  a  charge  against  the  morality  of  the  Scripture, 
or  pretend,  as  he  does,  to  believe  that  Jesus  meant  to  commend  an  un- 
righteous action,  and  propose  it,  in  its  un?'ig^iteousness,  as  a  model  for 
imitation. 

*  So  Augustine  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  liii.  2) :  Cor  ejus  laudavit  dominus  ejus.  Com- 
pare Luke  xii.  42 ;  xiv.  23,  where  in  like  manner  6  Kvpios,  without  further  qualifica- 
tion, is  used  of  an  earthly  lord. 

t  In  Plato's  words,  Tlaaa  ^ttictt'^^tj  x'^P'C"/"*'^  SiKatocrvirqs  Koi  rrjs  aXXijs  apeTTJs, 
irafovpyta  ov  crotpia  (paivfrat.  Rather  (ppovifxcos  is  a  middle  term,  not  bringing  out 
prominently  the  moral  characteristics,  either  good  or  evil,  of  the  action  to  which  it 
is  applied,  but  recognizing  in  it  a  skilful  adaptation  of  the  means  to  the  end — 
aflSrming  nothing  in  the  way  of  moral  approbation  or  disapprobation  either  of 
means  or  end,  but  leaving  their  worth  to  be  determined  by  other  considerations. 
If  the  (t>p6i'inos  were  the  cunning,  we  should  find  it  oi)posed  to  the  Hkokos,  the 
simple,  but  we  do  find  it  actually  opjwsed  to  the  fiaipSs.  (Matt.  vii.  24,  26;  xxv.  2.) 
The  (ppSirricrts  stands  in  the  same  relation  to  the  ffvi/fais  (understanding)  as  the 
ffotpia  does  to  the  vovs  (reason). 


356  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

Yet  at  the  same  time  few  will  deny  that  the  praise  has  something 
perplexing  in  it — though  ratlier  from  the  liability  of  the  passage  to  abuse, 
unguarded  as  at  first  siglit  it  appears,  though  it  is  not  really  so  (for  see 
ver.  1 1,  which  should  never  be  disconnected  from  the  parable),  than  from 
its  not  being  capable  of  a  fair  explanation.  The  explanation  is  clearly 
this :  the  man's  deed  has  two  sides  on  which  it  may  be  contemplated, 
— one,  the  side  of  its  dishonesty,  upon  which  it  is  most  blameworthy, — 
the  other,  the  side  of  its  prudence,  its  foresight,  upon  which,  if  it  be  not 
particularly  praiseworthy,  yet  it  supplies  a  sufficient  analogon  to  a  Chris- 
tian virtue, — one  which  should  be  abundantly,  but  is  only  too  weakly 
found  in  most  followers  of  Christ, — to  make  it  the  ground  of  an  exhorta- 
tion and  rebuke  to  these, — ^just  as  any  of  the  deeds  of  bold  bad  men  have 
a  side,  that  is  the  side  of  their  boldness  and  decision,  upon  which  they 
rebuke  the  doings  of  the  weak  and  vacillating  good.  There  are  martyrs 
of  the  Devil  who  put  to  shame  the  saints  of  Grod.  and  running  as  they  do 
with  more  alacrity  to  death  than  these  to  life,*  may  be  proposed  to  them 
for  their  imitation.  We  may  disentangle  a  bad  man's  energy  from  his 
ambition,  so  far  at  least  as  to  contemplate  them  apart  from  one  another, 
and  may  then  praise  the  one  and  condemn  the  other.  Even  so  our  Lord 
in  the  present  case  disentangles  the  steward's  dishonesty  from  his  pru- 
dence :  the  one  of  course  can  only  have  his  earnest  rebuke,— the  other 
may  be  usefully  extolled  for  the  purpose  of  provoking  his  people  by  em- 
ulation to  a  like  prudence,  which  yet  should  be  at  once  a  holy  prudence, 
and  a  prudence  employed  about  things  of  far  higher  and  more  lasting 
importance! 

The  next  verse  fully  bears  out  and  confirms  this  view  of  the  Lord's 
meaning  :  "  For  the  children  of  this  wwld  are  in  their  generation  wiser 
than  the  children  of  light?''  Of  course  there  is  the  same  objection  to  the 
"wiser"  here  that  there  was  to  the  '■'•  vnsely'''  of  the  verse  preceding. 
As  we  saw  that  ought  to  have  been  '•  prudently."  so  this  ought  to  have 
been  "more  prudent."!     '•'•The  children  of  this  world"  are  evidently 

*  Bernard :  Martyrcs  Diaboli  .  .  .  alacriiis  curiiint  ad  mortem  qua,m  nos  ad 
vitam.  There  is  a  striking  story  of  one  of  the  Egyptian  eremites  which  illustrates 
tlie  matter  in  hand.  Chancing  to  see  a  dancing  girl,  he  was  moved  to  tears. 
Being  asked  the  reason,  he  replied.  That  she  should  be  at  such  pains  to  please  men 
in  her  sinful  vocation  :  and  we  in  our  holy  calling  use  so  little  diligence  to  please 
God.  Compare  an  incident  in  the  Life  of  Pelagia  in  Lipomanni  Acta  Sanctorum, 
V.  5,  p.  226. 

f  Clarius;  Laudat  ingenium,  damnat  factum.  Augustine's  explanation  (  QM<2si. 
Evang.,  1.  2,  c.  34)  is  less  satisfactory:  E  contrario  dicuntur  istae  simiHtudines,  ut 
intelligamus  si  laudari  potuit  ille  a  domino  qui  fraudem  faciebat,  quanto  amplius 
placent  Domino  Deo,  qui  secundum  ejus  prseceptum  ilia  opera  faciunt.  Cf  Jeromb 
Ad  Algas.,  Ep.  121,  (\M.  6. 

!  It  would  seem  <hat  exactly  thus  one  of  the  old  Latin  vei'sions  had  astutiorea. 
("Augustine,  Enari\  hi  Ps.  liii.  2.) 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  357 

the  earthly-minded,  the  men  of  the  earth,  those  whose  portion  is  here, 
and  who  look  not  beyond — who  have  adopted  the  world's  maxims,  being 
born  of  the  spirit  of  the  world,  and  not  of  God.  The  phrase  occurs  but 
once  else  in  Scripture,  and  then  in  our  Evangelist  (xx.  34),  though  tlie 
terra  '•  children  of  light"  is  common  also  to  St.  John  (xii.  36),  and  St. 
Paul  (1  Thess.  v.  5  ;  Ephes.  v.  8).  There  is  good  reason  why  the  faith- 
ful should  be  here  called  by  that  rather  than  by  any  other  name,  for  so 
their  doings,  which  are  deeds  of  light,  done  in  truth  and  in  sincerity, 
even  as  they  are  themselves  sons  of  the  day  and  of  the  light,  are  con- 
trasted with  the  deeds  of  darkness,  the  hidden  tilings  of  dishonesty,  which 
are  wrought  by  the  children  of  this  world,  and  of  which  this  child  of  the 
present  world,  who  plays  the  chief  part  in  the  parable  before  us,  has  just 
given  a  notable  specimen. 

The  declaration  itself  has  been  differently  understood,  according  as 
the  words  that  are  wanting  to  complete  the  sentence  have  been  diflferently 
supplied.  Some  complete  it  thus : — "  The  children  of  this  world  are 
iciser  in  their  generation"  namely,  in  worldly  things,  " t/um  the  children 
of  light"  are  in  those  same  worldly  things,  that  is,  Earthly  men  are 
more  prudent  than  spiritual  men  in  earthly  things ;  those  earthly  things 
are  their  element,  their  world  ;  they  are  more  at  home  in  them ;  they 
give  more  thought,  they  bestow  more  labor,  on  these  matters,  and  there- 
fore succeed  in  them  better :  though  it  be  true  that  this  is  only  as  owls 
see  better  than  eagles — in  the  dark.*  But  it  is  hard  to  see  how  a  gen- 
eral statement  of  this  kind  bears  on  the  parable,  which  most  are  agreed 
urges  upon  the  Christian,  not  prudence  in  earthly  things  by  the  example 
of  the  worldling's  prudence  in  the  same,  but  rather,  by  the  example  of 
the  worldling's  prudence  in  these  things,  urges  upon  him  prudence  in 
heavenly. 

Others,  then,  are  nearer  the  truth  who  complete  the  sentence  thus : 
"  The  children  of  this  loorJd  are  wiser  in  their  generation"  (in  worldly 
matters)  "  than  tJic  chihlren  of  ligJit"  in  theirs,  that  is,  in  heavenly  mat- 
ters ;  the  children  of  light  being  thus  rebuked  that  they  are  not  at  half 
the  pains  to  win  heaven  which  the  men  of  this  world  are  to  win  earth — 
that  they  are  less  provident  in  heavenly  things  than  those  are  in  earthly 
— that  the  world  is  better  served  by  its  servants  than  God  is  by  his.  This 
is  the  meaning,  as  it  is  rightly,  though  somewhat  too  vaguely,  given  by 
many:  for  it  is  only  perfectly  seized  when  we  see  in  the  words.  "z«  ttieir 
generation"  or  as  they  ought  to  be  translated, — "  unto,"  or  "  towards 
their  generation,"!  an  allusion,  which  has  been  strangely  often  missed, 

*  So  Cajetan:  Filii  liiijus  .sa^cnli  sunt  filii.s  Incis  prudentiores,  non  absolute,  sed 
in  nationc  tcnebrosft..  sicut  noc'tua;  nu-liu.s  vidcut  in  tcucbris  animalilius  diurnis. 
t  1.1$  t))v  ytvfav  jT)v  iavTwv.  wliicli  Theophylact  explains  iy  rt^  ^Iw  tovtw  :  but 


358  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

to  the  debtors  in  the  parable.  They,  the  ready  accomplices  in  the  stew 
ard's  fraud,  showed  themselves  to  be  men  of  the  same  generation  as  he 
was, — they  were  all  of  one  race,  children  of  the  ungodly  world ;  and  the 
Lord's  declaration  is,  that  the  men  of  this  world  make  their  intercourse 
with  one  another  more  profitable, — obtain  more  from  it, — manage  it  bet- 
ter for  their  interests,  such  as  those  are,  than  do  the  children  of  light  their 
intercourse  with  one  another.  For  what  opportunities,  he  would  imply 
are  missed  by  these  last,  by  those  among  them  to  whom  a  share  of  the 
earthly  mammon  is  intrusted. — what  opportunities  of  laying  up  treasure 
in  heaven — of  making  them  friends  for  the  time  to  come  by  showing  love 
to  the  poor  saints, — or  generally  of  doing  offices  of  kindness  to  the  house- 
hold of  faith — to  the  men  of  the  same  generation  as  themselves,  whom 
yet  they  make  not,  as  they  might,  receivers  of  benefits,  from  which  they 
themselves  should  hereafter  reap  a  hundred-fold. 

In  the  following  verse  the  Lord  exhorts  his  disciples  not  to  miss  these 
opportunities,  but  by  the  example  of  him  who  bound  to  himself  by  bene- 
fits the  men  of  his  generation,  so  should  they  in  like  manner,  by  benefits, 
bind  those  who  were  like  themselves  children  of  light,  and  make  friends 
of  them  ;* — "  And  I  say  unto  you^  Make  to  your  selves  friends  of  the  mam- 

then  he  has  first  changed  ei's  tV  -y^viav  into  eV  ry  yevea,  and  as  if  it  were  so,  it  is 
translated  in  the  Vulgate,  in  generatione  sua,.  Mr.  Greswell  has  well  shown  {Exp. 
of  the  Par.,  v.  4,  p.  52)  how  untenable  such  a  translation  of  the  words  is,  which, 
indeed,  could  never  have  been  so  much  as  entertained,  except  on  the  principle 
which,  in  the  interpreting  of  Scripture,  has  been  so  often  adopted, — that  preposi- 
tions have  no  meaning  in  particular,  but  may  be  made  to  mean  any  thing  which  it 
seems  convenient  for  the  moment  that  they  should  mean.  It  was  convenient  to 
turn  els  into  eV,  because  it  seemed  to  give  some  meaning  to  the  words,  though  not 
a  very  satisfactory  one.  But  even  the  convenience  disappears,  when  we  once  re- 
gard the  debtors  of  the  parable  as  the  men  of  the  same  yevta  as  the  steward,  and 
that  here  is  allusion  to  them,  for  all  then  is  easy  and  plain,  and  this  while  there  is 
no  force  applied  to  the  words,  and  they  are  allowed  their  full  rights.  Storr  (Opwsc. 
Acad.,  v.  3,  p.  117)  gives  rightly  the  meaning  of  this  verse:  Rebus  terrenis  unicfi 
inhiantes  (ot  viol  r.  alosv.  t.),  ut  ceconomas  inductus  (v.  1,  3,  4)  prudentia.  erga  suam 
familiam  {els  r.  yev.  r.  iavT.),  hoc  est,  erga  idem  sentientes.  qui  pariter  ac  ipsi  sunt 
viol  T.  aluv.  T.  TOUT,  erga  fratres  suos,  terrena  similiter  inhiantes  (cf  v.  5-7)  ante- 
cedere  solent  lucis  ac  bpatitatis  sempiternae  (v.  9-12)  cupidos,  qui  ssepe  non  ita 
(cf.  V.  4)  student  familiam  suam  (t.  yev.  r.  iavr.)  hoc  est,  lucis  item  cupidos  (<equfe 
cum  ipsis  vlovs  r.  (pwrhs)  et  els  r.  aiaiv.  <TKT)vas  perventuros  (v.  9),  ipsumque  com- 
munem  familiaj  Dominum  (Matt.  xxv.  40),  beneficiis  sibi  devincire,  ut  igitur  tant6 
magis  fuerit  opus,  admonitionem  inculcare  quae  sequitur,  Luc.  xvi.  9.  Weisse 
{Evans:!:.  Gcsch.,  v.  2.  p.  161)  translates  the  words  els  t.  yev.  t.  eavr.  rightly,  Im 
Verkher  mit  ihres  Gleichen ;  hut  Neander  too  vaguely,  Von  ihrem  Standpunkte. 
— For  a  masterly  disposal  of  the  loose  theory  that  eisand  eVare  ever  promiscuously 
and  ini  ■icliangeably  used  in  the  Greek  Testament,  see  Winer's  Grammatik, 
p.  392.  scq. 

*  Yet  at  the  same  time,  who  could  be  entirely  satisfied  with  such  a  summing 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  359 

mon  of  taii'ighteottsness,  that  tvlien  ye  fail,  they  may  receive  you  into 
everlasting  habitations.^^  This  '■'•  mammon  of  unrighteousness,^^  some 
explain  as  wealth  unjustly  gotten,*  by  fraud  and  by  violence,  "  treasures 
of  wickedness"  (Prov.  x.  2);  but  plainly  the  first  reconnuendation  to  the 
possessors  of  such  would  be  to  restore  it  to  its  rightful  owners,  as  Zac- 
chajus,  on  his  conversion,  expressed  his  determination  to  do  (Luke  xix. 
8),  for  ••  he  that  sacrificeth  of  a  thing  wrongfully  gotten,  his  oflering  is 
ridiculous"  (Sirac.  xxxiv.  18;  and  see  xxxv.  12),  and  out  of  such  there 
could  never  be  offered  accepted  alms  to  that  God  who  has  said,  '•  I  hate 
robbery  for  burnt-offering."  Only  when  this  restoration  is  impossible,! 
which  of  course  must  continually  be  the  case,  could  it  be  lawfully  be- 
stowed upon  the  poor.  Others  again  say  that  it  is  not  exactly  wealth 
which  the  present  possessor  has  unjustly  acquired,  but  that  wealth  which 
from  the  very  nature  of  the  world  and  the  world's  business  can  scarcely 
ever  have  been  gotten  together  without  sin  somewhere, — without  some- 
thing of  the  defilement  of  the  world  from  which  it  was  gathered  clinging 
to  it  ;|  if  not  sin  in  the  present  possessor,  yet  in  some  of  those,  nearer  or 

up  of  the  parable  as  that  given  by  Calvin :  Summa  hujus  parabolae  est,  hunianiter 
et  benigne  cum  proxiniis  nostris  esse  agendum,  ut  qiiura  ad  Dei  tribunal  ventum 
fucrit,  liberalitatis  nostras  fructus  ad  nos  redeat.  "Who  does  not  feel  that  there  must 
be  something  more  in  it  than  merely  this  ?  for  if  this  only,  why  an  unjnst  steward  1 
This  is  at  the  same  time  the  point  which  the  early  Cliurch  writers  mainly,  often 
exclusively,  make, — that  the  parable  is  an  earnest  exhortation  to  liberal  almsgiving. 
So  Irenifus  {Con.  Hair.,  1.  4,  c.  30),  Augnstine  {Dc  Civ.  Dei,  1.  21,  c.  27),  Athana- 
sius,  Theoijhylact;  so  also  Erasmus,  Luther,  who  says,  "It  is  a  sermon  on  good 
works  and  especially  against  avarice,  tliat  men  abuse  not  wealth,  but  therewith 
help  poor  and  needy  people." — and  many  more. 

*  Tlie  words  so  interpreted  would  be  easily  open  to  abuse,  as  though  a  man 
might  compound  with  his  conscienee  and  with  God.  and  by  giving  soine  small  por- 
tion of  alms  out  of  unjustly  acquired  wealth,  make  the  rest  clean  unto  him.  Plu- 
tarch speaks  thus  of  some,  airh  UpocrvKias  ^foaefiovvTfs,  and  Augustine  affirms 
{Scrm.  llo.  c.  2)  that  such  abuse  of  the  words  was  actually  made:  Hoc  quidam 
malfe  intclligendo  rapiunt  res  alienas,  et  aliquid  inde  pauperibus  largiuntur,  et 
putunt  .se  facere  quod  prteceptum  est.  Dicunt  enim,  rapere  res  alienas,  mammona 
est  ini<jnitatis:  erogare  inde  aliquid,  maxima  egentibus  Sanctis,  hoc  est  facere 
amicos  de  mammona  iniquitatis.  Intellectus  iste  corrigendus  est,  imo  de  tabulis 
cordis  vestri  omnino  delendus  est. 

t  Tlius  the  Jewish  Proverb,  Pastorum,  exactorum,  et  publieanorum  restitutio 
est  difficilis. 

:f  In  this  sense  Jerome  quotes  the  proverb.  Dives  ant  iniquus  aut  inicpii  ha'res, 
as  illu.strative  of  the  parable  :  and  Cajetan  says,  it  is  called  mammon  of  unrii^hlcous- 
nc.^s.  E6  quod  rara;  vel  nulla}  sunt  divitise,  in  quarum  congregatione  scu  conversa- 
tione  non  intervenerit  peccatum,  vel  habentium,  vel  ministrorum,  vel  patrum  seu 
avorum.  We  might  quote  in  this  view,  Sirac.  xxvii.  2:  "  As  a  nail  stieketh  fast 
between  the  joinings  of  the  stones,  so  doth  sin  stick  close  between  buying  and 
selling.'  Augustine  (Q»/<r.s/.  Eiang.,  1.2.  (pi.  34) :  Quia  non  sunt  istiu  divitiie 
nisi  ini<|uis,  qui  in  els  constituunt  spem  atque  copiam  bcatitudinis  suse.     Cf.  Scrm. 


360  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

more  remote,  from  or  through  whom  he  received  it :  and  so  inheriting 
the  wealth,  he  has  inherited  the  obligation  to  make  good  the  wrongs  com- 
mitted in  the  getting  it  together.  But  the  comparison  with  ver.  12, 
where  "  unriglUemis  mammon,"  a  phrase  of  course  equivalent  to  '•  mam- 
mon of  unrighteousness  "  is  set  against  ^^tnce  riches" — these  true  being 
evidently  heavenly  enduring  goods,  such  as  neither  fade  nor  fail. — makes 
it  far  more  probable  that  the  "  mammon  of  unrighteousness'^''  is  the  uncer- 
tain, unstable  mammon,  that  which  is  one  man's  to-day,  and  another's 
to-morrow ;  which  if  a  man  trust  in,  he  is  sure  to  be  trusting  in  a  vain 
and  deceitful  thing,  that  will  sooner  or  later  prove  false  and  betray  his 
confidence,  so  that  he  will  find  that  trusting  in  it  he  will  have  trusted  in 
a  lie.*     And  "  mammon  of  imrighteousness"  it  may  in  a  deeper  sense  be 


50,  c.  4.  Turtiillian's  explanation  {Adv.  Marc..,  1.  4,  c.  33)  is  a  little  different ; 
money  is  so  called  because  the  love  of  it  is  the  root  of  all  evil :  Injiistitire  enim, 
auctorem,  et  dominatorem  totius  seculi  nuramiim  scimus  onines :  Melancthon, — 
because  of  the  manifold  abuses  that  are  almost  inseparably  connected  \\ith  it : 
Vocat  mammonam  injustam  non  quod  sint  injuste  partfe  [divitite],  non  quod  contra 
conscientiam  occupatpe  sint,  sed  propter  abusus  multipliccs,  qui  in  h^c  infirmitate 
humani  generis  seqiii  solent.     (See  Eccles.,  v.  13.) 

One  would  be  glad  to  find  true  the  assertion  that  mammon  (which  I  believe 
would  more  correctly  be  spelt  with  a  single  m)  was  the  name  of  a  Syrian  god,  who 
was  worshipped  as  presiding  over  wealth,  in  the  same  way  as  Plutus  is  the  god  of 
riches  in  the  Grcjek  mythology — for  so  the  antithesis  in  the  words,  "  Ye  cannot 
serve  God  aiul  onammon"  would  come  out  more  strongly, — Te  cannot  serve  the  true 
God  and  an  idol  or  false  god  at  once.  But  there  is  no  satisfactory  proof  of  the 
assertion.  It  Ls  repeated  by  Schleusner,  who  makes,  as  iisual,  references  which  he 
has  evidently  never  verified, — one  to  Tertullian  [a.  SjtIs  religiose  colebetur,  teste 
TertuUiano]  who  says  nothing  of  the  kind,  Adv.  Marc.  1.  4,  c.  33,  which  must  be 
the  passage  meant :  and  another,  which  being  followed  up,  proves  only  that  an 
obscure  grammarian  of  the  eleventh .  century  said  so.  Neither  Augustine  (Z?e 
Serm.  Dom.  in  Mon.,  1.  2),  nor.  Jerome  {Ad  Algas.,  qu.  6),  who  both  explain  the 
word,  give  a  hint  of  the  kind.  All  that  Aiigustine  says  there,  or  Serm.  113,  c.  2, 
is  this :  Quod  Punici  dicunt  mammon,  Latine  lucrum  vocatur :  quod  Hebraji  dic\mt 
manurona,  Latine  divitije  vocantur, — and  Jerome  no  more.  The  erroneous  notion 
belongs  to  the  middle  ages.  Thus  Pet.  Lombard  (1.  2.  dist.  6) :  Nomine  da;monis 
divitia3  vocantm-,  scilicet  Mammona.  Est  enim  Mammon  nomen  dsemonis,  quo 
nomine  vocantm-  divitiaj  secundiim  SjTam  linguara. — See  a  good  note  by  Drusius 
in  the  Crit.  Sac.  (in  loc.) 

*  Tlie  use  of  oSi/cos  for  "  false  "  runs  through  the  whole  Septnagint.  Thus, 
Deut.  xix.  16.  fidpTvs  oSi/cos,  a  fixlse  witness ;  and  ver.  18,  i/jLaprvpijcrev  aStKa.  he  hath 
witnessed  falsely.  See  Prov.  vi.  19;  xii.  17;  Jer.  v.  31,  "The  prophets  prophecy 
falsely"  {&Buca).  and  many  more  examples  might  be  adduced.  So  here  the  "un- 
righteous" mammon  is  the  false  mammon,  that  which  will  betray  the  reliance 
which  is  placed  on  it,  which  we  must  leave,  or  which  will  leave  us.  (Prov.  xxiii.  5.) 
Thus  larpol  &^iKoi  (Job  xiii.  4),  "physicians  of  no  value."  So  our  Lord  speaks  of 
the  onrarrj  rod  -kKovtov;  and  Paul  (1  Tim.  vi.  17)  bids  Timothy  to  warn  'the  rich 
that  they  trust  not  eVJ  ttAoi'tou  a.'5i]K6rif\Ti. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  361 

justly  called,  since  it  is  certain  that  in  all  wealth  a  principle  of  evil  is 
implied  ;  for  iu  a  perfect  state  of  society — in  a  realized  kingdom  of  God 
upon  earth — there  would  be  no  such  thing  as  property  belonging  to  one 
man  more  than  another.  In  the  moment  of  the  Church's  first  love,  when 
th;it  kingdom  was  for  an  instant  realized,  "  all  that  believed  were  together, 
and  had  all  things  common  ;*  and  this  existence  of  property  has  ever 
been  so  strongly  felt  as  a  witness  for  the  selfishness  of  man,  that  in  all 
ideas  of  a  perfect  commonwealth, — which,  if  perfect,  must  of  course  be  a 
Church  as  well  as  a  State — from  Plato's  down  to  the  Socialists',  this  of 
the  communion  of  goods  has  made  a  necessary  condition.  So  that  tliough 
the  possessor  of  the  wealth,  or  those  who  transmitted  it  to  him.  may  have 
fairly  acquired  it,  yet  it  is  not  less  this  '•  unrigJifeoiis''^  mammon,  witness- 
ing in  its  very  existence  as  one  man's  and  not  every  man's,  for  the  cor- 
ruption and  fall  and  selfishness  of  man, — for  the  absence  of  that  highest 
love,  which  would  have  made  each  man  feel  that  whatever  was  his,  was 
also  every  one's  beside,  and  rendered  it  impossible  that  a  mine  and  thine 
should  ever  have  existed,  With  all  this,  we  must  not  of  course  forget 
that  the  attempt  prematurely  to  realize  this  or  any  other  little  fragment 
or  corner  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  apart  from  the  rest — the  corruption 
and  evil  of  man's  heart  remaining  unreraoved,  and  being  either  over- 
looked or  denied — has  ever  been  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  the 
worst  mischiefs  in  the  world. 

The  words,  "  that  tvhcn  ye  fail."\  are  of  course  an  euphemistic  way 

*  Augustine :  In  animani  iinam  et  cor  unum  conflali  caritatis  igne,  quorum 
nemo  diccbat  aliquid  proprium:  and  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixviii.)  he  explains  ''mammon 
of  unrightemisncss :"  Fortasse  ea  ipsa  est  iniquitas  quia  tu  habes  et  alter  non  liabet, 
tu  abiindus  et  alter  eget;  as  he  says  elsewhere  in  the  same  spirit:  Res  «//e/ws 
poKsidi'iitur,  c6m  supcrflu£e  possidentur.  Thus  Aquinas:  Divitia;  iniquitatis,  i.  e. 
inajqualitatis ;  of  which  one  has  so  much,  and  another  so  little. 

t  It  may  perhaps  be  a  question  whether  the  other  reading,  t/cAiTrj;  {'that  when 
it  fails"  i.  e.,  the  mammon),  be  not  to  be  preferred.  It  is  decidedly  so  by  Schulz 
(uA.  d.  Par.  V.  Veru-aller,  p.  81),  though  he  allows  that  as  regards  number  of  MSS. 
it  is  supported  by  inferior  authority.  Many  however  of  the  oldest  versions  bear 
witness  for  that  reading  which  Lachmann  has  also  admitted  into  his  text;  yet  not 
the  Vulgate,  which  has,  ciim  defeceritis,  nor  yet  the  older  Latin  (Irkn^eus,  Con. 
Har..  1.  4,  c.  49),  quando  fugati  fueritis.  "We  certainly  have  more  than  one  word 
of  the  same  family,  to  show  how  fitly  iKXelrrfiv  might  be  used  in  the  sense  which 
would  thus  be  given  it:  thus  briffavphv  aveKKiiitTov  (Luke  xii.  33).  dj/e/cAur^?  dtiravpSs 
(Wisd,  vii.  14),  wAoutoj  ai/eKMir^s  (Wisd.  viii.  16).  But  on  the  other  hand  it  may 
be  said  that  iKKdrcfiv  is  also  fretpiently  used  for  the  failing  of  men  through  death 
from  the  earth,  of  which  any  Lexicon  of  the  Septuagint  will  sui)])ly  many  ex- 
amples. Should  iKKliTT)  be  preferred  the  words  of  Seneca  {Dc  Bcnrf.  1.  6,  c.  3) 
will  afford  a  striking  parallel :  Egregife  niihi  videfur  M.  Antonius  ajjud  Rabirium 
poetam^  ci^m  fortunani  suam  transeuntcni  alid  videbat  et  sibi  nihil  relictnm  .  .  . 
exclumare :  TToc  liabeo,  quodcuuKpu'  dedi.  O  ()uantuni  habere  potuit,  ei  voluis- 
set !     IliC  sunt  divitite  certae,  in  quflcunque  sortis  humanai  levitate,  nno  loco  per- 


362  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

of  saying,  "  that  when  ye  die."  Many,  however,  have  been  unwilling  to 
refer  the  words  that  follow,  "  tliey  may  receive  you"  to  the  friends  which 
were  to  be  made  by  help  of  the  unrighteous  mammon ;  such  an  applica- 
tion seeming  to  them  to  attribute  too  much  to  men  and  to  their  inter- 
cession, to  imply  a  right  on  their  parts  who  had  received  the  benefits,  to 
introduce  their  benefactors  into  everlasting  habitations, — and  so  to  be 
trenching  on  the  prerogative  which  is  God's  alone.  Thus  it  has  been 
sometimes  said  '■'■tJiey"  are  the  angels,  as  we  find  angels  (ver.  22)  carry- 
ing Lazarus  into  Abraham's  bosom ;  or  others  understand  that  it  is  God 
and  Christ  who  it  is  meant  will  receive  ;  others  again  say,  that  the 
phrase  is  impersonal,  even  as  it  is  certain  that  St.  Luke  more  than  once 
uses  the  plural  impersonally  (xii.  11,  20  ;  xxiii.  31),  so  that  '•'•they  may 
receive  you"  would  be  equivalent  to,  "  You  may  be  received."  But  if 
we  look  at  this  verse,  not  as  containing  an  isolated  doctrine,  but  as  stand- 
ing in  close  and  living  connection  with  the  parable  which  has  just  pre- 
ceded it,  and  of  which  it  gives  the  moral,  we  shall  at  once  perceive  how 
this  phrase  comes  here  to  be  used,  and  its  justification.  There  is  plainly 
allusion  here  to  the  debtors ;  they,  being  made  friends,  were  to  receive 
the  deposed  steward  into  temporary  habitations  ;  and  the  present  phrase 
is  an  echo  of  what  had  just  gone  before  in  regard  to  him  and  them,  by 
using  which  in  his  practical  application  of  the  parable,  our  Lord  throws 
back  light  upon  that,  and  at  once  fixes  the  attention  of  his  hearers  upon, 
and  explains,  its  most  important  part.  It  is  idle  to  press  the  words 
further,  and  against  all  analogy  of  faith  to  assert,  on  the  strength  of  this 
single  phrase,  that  with  any  except  God,  that  even  with  his  glorified 
saints,  there  will  reside  power  of  their  own  to  admit  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ;  but  idle  too,  on  the  other  hand  to  afiirm,  that  "  they  may  receive 
you"  in  the  second  clause  of  the  sentence,  can  refer  to  any  other  but  the 
friends  mentioned  in  the  first — which  no  one,  unless  alarmed  by  the  con- 
sequences which  others  might  draw  from  the  words,  could  possibly  for 
an  instant  call  in  question.*  The  true  parallel  to,  and  at  once  the  ex- 
planation and  the  guard  of,  this  passage,  is  evidently  Matt.  xxv.  34-40. 

mansurse  :  qua?  quo  majores  fuerint,  hoc  minorem  habebunt  invidiam.  Quid  tan- 
quam  tuo  parcis  1  Procurator  es  .  .  .  Quseris  quomodo  ilia  tua  facia.s  1  donando. 
Consule  ergo  rebus  tuis  at  certam  tibi  earum  et  inexpugnabilem  possessionem 
para :  honestiores  illas  non  solum,  sed  tutiores  facturus. 

*  Cocceius :  Ae'lioj/Taj  posset  intelligi  impersonaliter,  .  .  .  sed  filum  parabolaB 
postulat  ut  referatur  ad  amicos.  Non  quod  homines  suis  meritis  possint  recipere  in 
Eeterna  tabernacula,  sed  quod  flllis  Dei  Isetantibus,  applaudeutibus,  et  in  Deo  ac 
Spiritu  ejus  volentibus,  &  Deo  recipiantur  ii,  qui  amici  ipsorum  esse  voluerint. 
Voluntas  justorum  et  beatorum  est  eflScax,  quia  est  <pp6vrifjia  rod  irvevfx.aros,  Rom._ 
viii.  27.  Cf.  AuGu.sTiNE,  QucEst.  Evmig.,  1.  2,  qu.  38 ;  and  Gerhard  {Loc.  TheolL, 
loc.  27,  c.  8,  <^  3) :  Recipiimt  nos  turn  precibus  in  ha.c  vita,,  turn  testimonio  ac 
suffragio  in  die  judicii. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  363 

The  heavenly  habitations  being  termed  ^'- everlasting^^*  are  thus  tacitly 
contrasted  with  the  temporary  shelter  which  was  all  that  the  steward, 
the  child  of  the  present  world,  procured  for  himself  with  all  his  plotting 
and  planning,  his  cunning  and  his  dishonesty, — also,  it  may  be,  with  the 
temporary  stewardship  which  every  man  exercises  on  earth,  from  which 
it  is  not  long  before  he  fails  and  is  removed  : — how  important  it  is  there- 
fore, the  word  will  imply,  that  he  should  make  sure  his  entrance  into  a 
kingdom  that  shall  not  be  removed. f 

In  the  verses  which  follow  (10-13),  and  which  stand  in  vital  cohe- 
rence with  the  parable,  it  is  very  observable  that  not  prudence,  but 
faitkfuhiess^  in  the  dispensation  of  the  things  earthly  is  especially  com- 
mended ;  so  to  put  far  away  any  possible  abuse  of  the  parable,  as  though 
the  unfaithfulness  of  the  steward  there  could  have  found  any  thing  but 
the  strongest  reprobation  from  Christ ;  just  as  in  another  place  (Matt. 
X.  IG),  when  he  said,  "Be  wise  as  serpents,"  lest  this  wisdom  should 
degenerate  into  cunning,  he  immediately  guarded  the  precept,  adding, 
"  and  harmless  as  doves."  The  things  earthly  whereof  men  have  a  dis- 
pen,sation,  and  wherein  they  may  show  their  faithfulness  and  their  fit- 
ness to  be  intrusted  with  a  higher  stewardship,  are  slightingly  called, 
"  that  ichich  is  Icast^^  as  compared  with  those  spiritual  gifts  and  graces 
which  are  " rrvuch ,•"  they  are  termed  " unrighteous"  or  deceitful,  " mantr 
mon^'^  as  set  against  the  heavenly  riches  of  faith  and  love,  which  are 
"  tnte"  and  durable  "  riches ;"  they  are  called  "  tJiat  lohiclt  is  anotJier 
man's"X  by  comparison  with  the  heavenly  goods,  which  when  possessed 

*  These  aldvioi.  those  irp6(rKaipoi.  The  term  a-Ktivri,  the  t«nt  which  was  pitched 
at  evening-  and  struck  in  the  morning,  or  the  temjwrary  booth  (Lev.  xxiii.  40-43) 
erected  with  plank.s  and  branches,  it.self  implies  any  tiling  but  a  fixed  and  lasting 
habitation;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  directly  set  against  such,  Heb.  xi.  9,  10,  where  it 
is  said  that  Abraham  dwelt  in  tabernacles  (crKrivais),  while  he  looked  for  a  city 
which  hath  foundations.  And  the  image  from  the  unstable  (r(crj>^  is  ased  by 
Hezekiah  to  set  forth  the  briefness  of  life  (Isai.  xxxviii.  12) :  "  Mine  age  is  depart- 
ed, and  is  removed  from  me  as  a  shejiherd's  tent."  Sec  Job  xxvii.  18 ;  2  Cor.  v.  1. 
Thus  too  tlie  temjiorary  sojourning  of  the  Son  of  God  on  the  earth  is  a  (tktivovv. 
(John  i.  14.)  But  these  aK-t)vai  are  aiwvtoi.  they  are  fxouai  (John  xiv.  2),  being 
pitched  by  God,  "a  tabernacle  that  shall  not  be  taken  down"  (o-jcTjfal  oi  ov  fiii 
atiffbufftv.  LXX.),  "  not  one  of  the  stakes  thereof  shall  ever  be  removed,  neither 
sluill  any  of  the  cords  thereof  be  broken."  (Isai.  xxxiii.  20.)  It  is  not  accurate 
to  adduce  2  Cor.  v.  1  here  as  a  parallel,  for  the  "  building  of  God,  the  house  not 
maile  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens,"  of  which  St.  Paul  there  speaks,  is 
plainly  not  the  abiding  heavenly  mansions,  but  the  glorified  body,  as  contrastod 
with  "our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle,"  or  our  present  body,  rh  yewSes  ffKTJyos, 
as  it  is  called.  Wisd.  ix.  15. 

f  So  according  to  Diodorus  Siculus  the  Egyjitiaas  called  the  houses  of  the 
living  KardKvffds.  but  of  the  dead  aiSlovs  oIkous-  Compare  Eccles.  xii.  6,  "Mao 
goeth  to  his  long  home."     {oIkov  oawvos  avrov.  LXX.) 

■\  Divitise  non  veree  nee  vestraj,  as  Augustine  terms  tbem. 


364  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD. 

are  our  own,  not  something  merely  without  us,  but  which  become  a  part 
of  our  very  selves,  assimilating  to  our  truest  life.  Thus  the  Lord  at 
once  casts  a  slight  on  the  things  worldly  and  temporal,  while  yet  at  the 
same  time  he  magnifies  the  importance  of  a  right  administration  of 
them  ;  since  in  the  dispensing  of  these, — which  he  declares  to  be  the 
least, — to  be  false  and  without  any  intrinsic  worth, — to  be  alien  from 
man's  essential  being,  he  yet  also  declares  that  a  man  may  prove  hi?  fi- 
delity, will  inevitably  show  what  is  in  him,  and  whether  he  be  fit  to  be 
intrusted  with  that  which  has  a  true  and  enduring  value,  with  a  ministra- 
tion in  the  kingdom  of  God.*  And  in  ver.  13  he  further  states  what 
the  fidelity  is,  which  in  this  stewardship  is  required : — it  is  a  choosing 
of  God  instead  of  mammon  for  our  lord.  For  in  this  world  we  are  in 
the  condition  of  servants  from  whom  two  masters  are  claiming  allegi- 
ance— one  is  God,  man's  rightful  lord,  the  other  is  this  unrighteous 
mammon,  which  was  given  to  be  our  servant,  to  be  wielded  by  us  in 
God's  interests,  and  in  itself  to  be  considered  by  us  as  something  slight, 
transient,  and  another's — but  which  has,  in  a  sinful  world,  erected  itself 
into  a  lord,  and  now  demands  obedience  from  us,  which  if  we  yield, 
we  can  be  no  longer  faithful  servants  and  stewards  of  God's.  We 
shall  no  longer  lay  out  according  to  his  will  that  which  he  indeed 
gave  us  to  be  merely  a  thing  beneath  us,  but  which  we  have  allowed  to 
have  a  will  and  a  voice  of  its  own,  and  to  speak  to  us  in  accents  of 
command.  We  cannot  any  longer  be  faithful  servants  of  God,  for  that 
upstart  lord  has  a  will  so  different  from  his  will,  gives  commands  so 
opposite  to  his,  that  occasions  must  speedily  arise  when  one  or  other  will 
have  to  be  slighted,  despised,  and  disobeyed,  if  the  other  be  regarded, 
honored,  and  served  ;t — God,  for  instance,  will  command  a  scattering, 
when  mammon  will  urge  to  a  further  heaping  and  gathering ;  God  will 
require  spending  upon  others,  when  mammon,  or  the  world,  a  spending 
upon  our  own  lusts.  Therefore,  these  two  lords  having  characters  so 
different,  and  giving  commands  so  opposite,  it  will  be  impossible  to  re- 
concile their  service  (Jam.  iv.  4),  — one  must  be  despised,  if  the  other  is 

*  The  Jews  have  various  sayings  and  parables  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  God  proves  men  in  little  things,  to  try  whether  they  are  worthy  to  be 
intrusted  with  great.  Thus  they  say  of  David,  that  God  tried  him  first  with 
"those  few  sheep  in  the  wilderness,"  which  because  he  faithfully  and  boldly  kept 
(1  Sam.  xvii.  34-36),  therefore  God  "  took  him  from  the  sheepfolds  to  feed  Jacob 
his  people,  and  Israel  his  inheritance  "  (Ps.  Ixxviii.  70,  71).  See  Schoettgen's 
Hor.  Heb.  v.  1,  p.  300. 

t  Stella  has  a  lively  comparison  in  illustration  of  this  :  Si  duobus  hominibus 
aliqua.  vi&,  incedentibus  canis  sequitur.  non  facilfe  jiidicare  poteris  uter  illorum 
Dominus  ejus  sit.  Cfeterum  si  alter  ab  altero  discedat,  statim  apparet  clarissimfe 
quis  Dominus  sit.  Canis  enira,  ignoto  relieto,  ad  notum  accedit,  eumque  Dominum 
esse  suum  clarfe  ostendit. 


THE  UNJUST  STEWARD.  366 

held  to ;  the  only  faithfulness  to  the  one  is  to  break  with  the  other ; 
"  Ye  cannot  serve*  God  and  mammon."  Such  appears  to  me  to  be  the 
connection  between  ver.  13  and  the  preceding  verses,  and  between  the 
whole  of  these  verses  and  the  parable  of  which  they  surely  are  intended 
to  give  the  uioralf 

*  AovXfveiv.  to  which  word  its  full  force  is  to  be  given,  a  force  which  Chrysos- 
torn  excellently  brings  out,  when  after  noting  how  Abraham  and  Job  were  rich, 
and  yet  found  favor  with  God,  he  goes  on  to  observe  that  it  was  because  each  of 
these  though  rich,  ovk  eSovKtaf  ry  nanfiwvS..  aW'  elxf  avrhu  Koi  iKparei  koI  SeffirSTijs 
[avrov]  ov  5ov\os  ^u.     See  also  St'iCER,  S.  V.  Sov\fvu. 

t  Among  the  many  strange  explanations  to  which  this  parable  has  given  birth, 
perhaps  one  of  the  strangest  is  recorded  by  Jerome  (Ad  Algas.,  Ep.  121,  qu.  6), 
who  quotes  it  from  the  Commentaries  of  Theo})hilus,  bishop  of  Antioch.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  the  unjust  steward  is  the  apostle  Paul,  who  was  forcibly  thrust  out  by 
God  of  his  Judaism,  and  being  so,  made  himself  a  reception  in  many  hearts, 
through  the  declaring  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God, — of  the  remission  of  sins ; 
and  for  this  had  praise,  that  he  had  well  done,  "being  changed  from  the  austerity 
of  the  Law  to  the  clemency  of  the  Gospel."  But  I  see  that  elsewhere  {De  Script. 
Eccles.)  Jerome  doubts  the  genuineness  of  the  Commentaries  extant  in  his  time 
under  the  name  of  Theophilus.  This  is  only  outdone  by  a  modern  writer  mention- 
ed by  Unger  {De  Par.  Jes.  Nat.,  p.  85),  who  affirms  the  Lord  to  have  meant  him- 
self by  the  unjust  steward  !  It  sounds  almost  irreverent  to  mention  in  immediate 
juxtaposition  with  this,  that  Pontius  Pilate  and  Judas  Iscariot  have  been  proposed 
as  the  persons  by  him  represented.  But  the  meanest  and  most  grovelling  of  all 
expositions  is  given.by  Hartmann  {Cvmm.  de  (Econ.  Lnprobo,  Lips.  1830)  of  which 
it  will  suffice  to  say  that  the  author  explains  ver.  9  to  mean  this :  Make  to  your- 
selves friends  of  those  that  are  rich  in  this  world  (this  is  his  interpretation  of  'EK  t. 
/ta/x.  T.  dSi/f.),  that  when  through  any  mishap  you  get  low  in  the  world,  you  may  be 
sure  of  a  retreat  for  the  remainder  of  your  days.  In  "Wolf's  Cures,  and  Kocher's 
Analecta.  other  extravagant  interpretations  may  be  found,  which  it  would  be  little 
worth  while  to  repeat. 


XXVI. 
THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

Luke  xvi.  19-31. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  connection  of  verses  15-18  with  one 
another,  and  of  all  with  this  parable,  is  not  easy  to  trace,  while  yet  to 
say,  as  Hammond  and  others  do,  that  St.  Luke  has  here  thrown  toge- 
ther various  sayings  of  our  Lord's,  uttered  on  very  different  occasions, 
is  a  most  unsatisfactory  explanation  ; — for  what  should  they  do  here  ?  or 
how  have  they  come  to  be  here  introduced  ?  But  however  loosely  strung 
together,  at  first  sight,  verses  15-18  may  appear,  there  is  a  thread  of 
connection  running  through  them  all,  and  afterwards  joining  them  with 
the  parable, — there  is  one  leading  thought  throughout,  namely,  that  in 
all  is  contained  rebuke  and  threatening  for  the  Pharisees.  They  had 
heard  the  Lord's  exhortation  to  a  large  and  liberal  bounty,  his  warning 
to  his  disciples  that  they  should  not  attempt  to  serve  at  once  God  and 
the  world, — and  they  testified  by  look  and  gesture,  and  it  may  be  also 
openly  in  words,  their  dislike  of  the  doctrine,  and  scorn  of  the  tekcher ; 
— "  The  Pharisees  also,  who  were  covetous,  heard  all  these  things,  and 
they  derided  him."*  Whereupon  he  turned  and  addressed  to  them  the 
discourse,  which  had  hitherto  been  to  the  disciples,  and  rebuked,  first 
their  hypocrisy ; — while  they  were  covetous,!  that  is,  while  their  hearts 
were  secretly  given  to  the  world,  they  yet  would  be  accounted  to  love 
God  above  all  things, — they  sought  a  reputation  for  holiness  and  right- 
eousness before  men ;  but  he  proceeds,  highly  esteemed  as  they  were 
among  men,  they  and  their  pretences  were  abomination  before  God, 
who  knoweth  the  hearts.  It  is  then  announced  to  them  (ver.  16)  how 
that  dispensation,  of  which  they  were  the  stewards  and  administrators, 

t  The  (piXapyvpia  here  attributed  to  the  Pharisees  is  to  be  taken  in  that  widest 
and  deepest  sense,  in  which  it  is  the  (il^a  trdvTwv  ra>v  kolkwv  (1  Tim.  vi.  10),  the 
dependence  upon  and  trust  in  the  world  rather  than  in  God. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  367 

was  passing  away;  "The  law  and  the  prophets  were  unto  John;"  their 
stewardship  is  coming  to  an  end,  and  a  larger  dispensation,  in  which 
they  shall  no  more  have  the  "  key  of  knowledge"  to  admit  or  to  ex- 
clude, is  begun  :  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  preached,  and  every  man 
presseth  into  it."  Yet  not  that  the  law  itself  was  to  be  abolished,  for  that 
would  be  eternal  as  the  God  that  gave  it  (ver.  17),  being  the  expression 
of  his  perfections  and  holy  will :  which  when  it  was  so,  how  great  was 
their  guilt,  who,  while  they  pretended  to  be  zealous  for  its  honor,  the 
guardians  of  its  purity,  were  continually  tampering  with  it  in  some  of 
its  most  sacred  enactments,  as  in  those  concerning  marriage  (ver.  18), 
and  relaxing  its  obligations;  and  thereupon  the  parable  follows. 

But  that  being  evidently  addres.sed  to  the  Pharisees,  a  difficulty  at 
once  presents  itself  They  were,  indeed,  "covetous"  (ver.  14),  lovers 
of  money,  but  prodigal  excess  in  living,  like  that  of  the  rich  man,  is  no- 
where, either  in  history  or  in  Scripture,  imputed  to  them.  Oa  the  con- 
trary, we  learn  from  contemporary  historical*  sources,  that  they  were 
remarkably  sparing  and  abstemious  in  their  manner  of  life,  many  of 
them  rigid  ascetics :  and  among  all  the  severe  rebukes  which  our  Lord 
addressed  to  them,  the  sin  of  luxury  and  prodigal  excess  is  nowhere  laid 
to  their  charge.  Their  sins  were  in  the  main  spiritual,  and  what  other 
sins  t])ey  had  were  such  as  were  compatible  with  a  high  reputation  for 
spirituality,  which  covetousness  is,  but  a  profuse  self-indulgence  and  an 
eminently  luxurious  living  is  not.  Mosheim  feels  the  difficulty  so 
strongly,  that  he  supposes  the  parable  to  have  been  directed  against  the 
Sadducces.t  of  whose  selfish  indulgence  of  themselves,  and  hard-hearted 
contempt  for  the  needs  of  others  (for  they  had  wrought  into  their  very 
religious  scheme  that  poverty  was  a  crime,  or  at  least  an  evidence  of  the 
displeasure  of  God),  he  says  we  shall  then  have  an  exact  description. 
But  tlie  parable  cannot  be  for  them,  there  is  nothing  to  make  it  probable 
that  Sadducees  were  present,  neither  can  there  be  any  change  between 
ver.  18  and  19  in  the  persons  addressed ;  this  will  appear  yet  more  evi- 
dent in  the  original  than  in  our  version,  which  has  omitted  the  particle 
which  marks  the  continuity  and  unbroken  tenor  of  the  discourse,  and  to 
give  the  force  of  which,  the  parable  ought  to  begin  not  simply,  "  There 
was,"  but,  "  Noio  there  was  a  certain  rich  man)'' 

The  explanation,  however,  seems  to  be  the  following.  While  it  is 
quite  true  that  covetousness  was  the  sin  of  the  Pharisees,  and  not  prodi- 

*  Josephus  {Antt.,  xviii.  1,  3)  says  of  thorn,  t^v  Slairav  ^^evre\i(ovcrti'.  ovSef  is 
rh  ixa\aKwr(pou  ivStSSin-fs,  and  tliat  the  Sadducees  mocked  tlioni  for  their  fasts  and 
austcritifs. 

t  Dc  Rcb.  Christ,  ante  Const.,  p.  49.  So  also  "Wctstt-in,  who  say.s  of  the 
Pharisoes,  jojiinabant  crcbr6,  modcstius  vesticbantur.  This  frequent  fasting  (Luke 
xviii.  12),  could  not  be  reconciled  with  the  faring  sumptuously  every  day. 


368  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

gal  excess  in  living,  while  it  was  rather  an  undue  gathering,  than  an 
undue  spending,  yet  hoarding  and  squandering  so  entirely  grow  out  of 
the  same  evil  root,  are  so  equally  the  consequences  of  unbelief  in  God 
and  in  God's  word — of  trust  in  the  creature  rather  than  in  the  Creator, 
are  so  equallj'  a  serving  of  mammon  (though  the  form  of  the  service 
may  be  different),  that  when  the  Lord  would  rebuke  their  sin,  which 
was  the  love  of  the  world  and  trust  in  the  world  rather  than  in  the  liv- 
ing God,  there  was  nothing  to  hinder  his  taking  his  example  from  a  sin 
opposite  in  appearance  to  theirs — which  yet  was  one  springing  out  of 
exactly  the  same  evil  condition  of  heart, — by  which  to  condemn  them. 
For  it  ought  never  to  be  left  out  of  sight  or  forgotten,  that  it  is  not  the 
primary  purpose  of  the  parable  to  teach  the  fearful  consequences  which 
will  follow  on  the  abuse  of  wealth  and  on  the  hard-hearted  contempt  of 
the  poor, — this  only  subordinately, — but  the  fearful  consequences  of 
unbelief,  of  having  the  heart  set  on  this  world,  and  refusing  to  give  cre- 
dence to  the  invisible  world  which  is  here  known  only  to  faith,  until  by 
a  miserable  and  too  late  experience,  the  existence  of  such  an  unseen 
world  has  been  discovered.  The  sin  of  Dives  in  its  root  is  unbelief: 
hard-hearted  contempt  of  the  poor,  luxurious  squandering  on  self,  are 
only  the  forms  which  it  takes ;  the  seat  of  the  disease  is  within,  these 
are  but  the  running  sores  which  witness  for  the  inward  plague.  He  who 
believes  not  in  an  invisible  world  of  righteousness  and  truth  and  spirit- 
ual joy,  must  of  necessity  place  his  hope  in  the  things  which  he  sees, 
which  he  can  touch,  and  taste,  and  smell, — will  come  to  trust  in  them, 
and  to  look  to  them  for  his  blessedness,  for  he  knows  of  no  other :  it  is 
not  of  the  essence  of  the  matter,  whether  he  hoards  or  squanders,  in 
either  case  he  sets  his  hope  on  the  world.  He  who  believes  not  in  a  God 
delighting  in  mercy  and  loving-kindness,  and  that  will  be  an  abundant 
rewarder  of  them  that  have  showed  mercy,  and  severe  punisher  of  all 
that  have  refused  to  show  it,  will  soon  come  to  shut  up  his  bowels  of 
compassion  from  his  brethren,  whether  that  so  he  may  place  more  money 
in  his  eliest,  or  have  more  to  spend  upon  his  own  lusts.  This  was  the 
•  sin  of  Dives  and  the  origin  of  all  his  other  sins,  that  he  believed  not  in 
this  higlier  world,  which  is  apprehended  by  faith, — a  world  not  merely 
beyond  the  grave, — but  a  kingdom  of  God,  a  kingdom  of  truth  and  love 
existing  even  in  the  midst  of  this  cruel  and  wicked  world ;  and  this  too 
was  the  sin  of  the  worldly-minded  Pharisees :  and  his  punishment  was, 
that  he  made  the  discovery  of  the  existence  of  that  truer  state  of  things 
only  to  his  own  unutterable  and  irremediable  loss.  His  unbelief  shows 
itself  again  in  his  supposing  that  his  brethren  would  give  heed  to  a  ghost, 
while  they  refused  to  give  heed  to  the  sure  word  of  God, — to  Moses  and 
the  prophets.  For  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  unbelief,  that  it  gives  that 
credence  to  portents  and  prodigies  which  it  refuses  to  the  truth  of  God. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  359 

Caligula,  who  mocked  at  the  existence  of  the  gode,  would  hide  himself 
under  a  bod  when  it  thundered  ;*  and  suijerstitiou  and  incredulity  are 
evermore  twin  brothers.  It  is  most  important  to  keep  in  mind  tliat  this  ; 
the  rebuke  of  unbelief,  is  the  aim  and  central  thought  of  the  parable:' 
for  if  we  conceive  of  its  primary  purpose  as  to  warn  against  the  abuse 
of  riches,  it  will  neither  .satisfactorily  cohere  with  the  discourse  in  which 
it  is  found,  nor  will  the  parable  itself  possess  that  unity  of  purpose,  that 
tending  of  all  its  parts  to  a  single  centre,  which  so  remarkably  distin- 
guishes the  other  parables  of  our  Lord  :  it  will  seem  to  divide  itself  into 
two  parts,  which  are  only  slightly  linked  together, — to  have  not  a  single 
but  a  double  point.f  But  when  we  pierce  deeper  into  the  heart  of  the 
matter,  and  contemplate  unbelief  as  the  essence  of  tlie  rich  man's  sin 
and  his  hard  heartedness  towards  others  with  his  prodigality  towards 
himself  only  as  the  forms  in  which  it  showed  itself,  we  shall  then  at 
once  admire  the  perfect  unity  of  all  its  parts,  and  the  vital  connection  of 
the  conversation  with  Abraham  in  the  latter  part,  with  the  sumptuous 
fare,  the  •'•pxirple  and  fine  linen"  of  the  earlier. 

But  before  proceeding  to  examine  the  parable  in  its  details,  it  is 
wortliy  of  notice,  that  besides  the  literal  and  obvious,  there  has  also 
ever  been  an  allegorical  interpretation  of  it.  which,  though  at  no  time' 
the  dominant  one  in  the  Church,  has  frequently  made  itself  heard,  and 
which  has  been  suggested  by  Augustine,  by  Gregory  the  Great,  by 
Theophylact,  and  by  more  modern  commentators  than  one.  Accord- 
ing to  this  the  parable,  like  so  many  others  exclusively  given  by  St. 
Luke,  sets  forth  the  past  and  future  relations  of  the  Jew  and  Gentile. 
Dives  is  tlie  Jew,  or  the  Jewish  nation,  clothed  in  the  purple  of  the  king 
and  the  fine  linen  of  the  priest,  the  "  kingdom  of  priests."  He  fares 
Bumptuously, — that  is,  the  Jews  are  richly  provided  with  all  spiritual 
privileges,  not  hungering  and  thirsting  .-ifter  the  righteousness  of  God, 
but  full  of  their  own  righteousness ;  and  who,  instead  of  seeking  to  im- 
part their  own  blessings  to  the  Gentiles — to  the  miserable  Lazarus  that 
lay  covered  with  sores  at  their  gate — rather  glorified  themselves  by 
comparison  in  their  exclusive  possession  of  the  knowledge  and  favor  of 
God.  To  them  is  announced — that  is,  to  the  Pliarisees,  who  might  be 
considered  as  the  representatives  of  the  nation,  for  in  them  all  that  was 
evil  in  the  Jewish  spirit  was  concentrated — that  an  end  is  approaching, 
nay,  has  come  upon  them  already  :  Lazarus  and  Dives  are  both  to  die — 


*  Suetonius,  Caligula,  c.  51. 

t  One  of  tho  latest  impugners  of  tho  accuracy  of  the  Evangelical  rccord.s,  as  we 
pof5sess  them  CVTeissf,,  Ecang.  Gcsch.,  v.  2.  j).  1G8),  has  brought  forward  thi.s  very 
objection,  only  showing  thereby  how  entirely  he  has  himself  failed  to  enter  into 
the  spirit  of  tlu;  parable. 
24 


370  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

the  former  state  of  things  is  to  be  utterly  abolished.  Lazarus  is  to  be 
carried  by  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom — in  other  words,  the  believing 
Gentiles  are  to  be  brought  by  the  messengers  of  the  new  covenant  into 
the  peace  and  consolations  of  the  Gospel.  But  Dives  is  to  be  cast  into 
hoU, — the  Jews  are  to  forfeit  all  the  privileges  which  they  abused,  and 
will  find  themselves  in  the  most  miserable  condition,  exiles  from  the 
presence  of  God,  and  with  his  wrath  abiding  upon  them  to  the  utter- 
most, so  that  they  shall  seek  in  vain  for  some,  even  the  slightest,  alle- 
viation of  their  woful  estate. 

If  the  present  had  been  expressly  named  a  parable,  it  would  tend 
somewhat  to  confirm  this  or  some  similar  interpretation  ;*  for  according 
to  that  commonly  received,  it  is  certainly  no  parable,  the  very  essence 
of  that  order  of  composition  being,  that  one  set  of  persons  and  things 
is  named,  another  is  signified — they  are  set  over  against  one  another; 
but  here  the  rich  man  would  mean  a  rich  man,  and  the  poor  man  a  poor 
— the  purple  and  fine  linen  would  mean  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  so  on. 
Thus,  in  fact,  the  question  concerning  which  there  has  been  such  a  va- 
riety of  opinion  from  the  first,  namely,  whether  this  be  a  parable,  or  a 
history  (real  or  fictitious,  it  matters  not),  does  in  fact  wholly  depend  on 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  interpreted  :  if  the  ordinary  interpretation  be 
the  right  one,  it  is  certainly  not,  in  the   strictest  sense  of  the  word,  a 

*  Teelraan,  in  an  elaborate  essay  (Com.  in  Luc.  xvi.),  has  wrought  out  an  ex- 
planation in  part  similar  to  this,  hut  also  with  important  differences.  In  this  too, 
Dives  is  the  Jewish  people,  but  by  Lazarus  is  signified  Christ,  rejected  and  despised 
by  the  proud  nation,  and  full  of  sores,  that  is,  bearing  the  sins  of  his  people, 
wounded  and  bruised  for  their  iniquities.  (Isai.  liii.  3-5.)  Vitringa  gives  the 
same  explanation  {Erklar.  der  Parab.,  p.  939),  but  it  is  not  modern,  for  it  is 
mentioned  by  Augustine  (Quasi.  Evang.,  1.  2,  qa.  38):  Lazarum  Dominum  signi- 
ficare  accipiamus  .  .  .  jacentem  ad  januam  divitis,  quia  se  ad  aures  superbissimas 
Judajorura  Incarnationis  humilitate  dcjecit.  (2  Cor.  viii.  9.)  .  .  .  .  Ulcera  passio- 
nes  sunt  Domini  ex  inflrmitate  carnis,  quam  pro  nobis  suscipere  dignatus  est  ...  . 
Sinus  Abrahre,  sccretura  Patris,  qiio  post  passionem  resurgens  assumptus  est 
Dominiis.  It  is  to  be  found  also  in  Ambro.se  (Exp.  in  Laic,  1.  8,  c.  15) :  Cui 
[Lazaro]  similem  ilium  puto,  qui  cresus  saspius  a  Judaeis,  ad  patientiam  creden- 
tiura  et  vocationem  gentium  ulcera  sui  corporis  lambenda  quibusdam  velut  canibus 
offerebat;  and  than  he  quotes  Matt.  xv.  27.  See  also  Gill's  Ezp.  of  the  N.  T.  (in 
loc.) — Schleiermachcr's  supposition  that  Herod  Antipas,  infomous  for  his  incestu- 
ous marriage  (see  vur.  18),  is  pointed  at  in  Dives  is  sufficiently  curious,  and  one 
might  be  tempted  at  first  to  suppose,  original.  Yet  this  interpretation,  in  its  germ 
at  least,  is  to  be  found  in  TertuUian  (Adv.  Marc,  1.  4,  c.  34).  He  too  sees  in  ver. 
18  an  allusion  to  Herod's  marriage,  and  observes  that  the  connection  is  closer  than 
at  first  sight  appears,  between  that  verse  and  the  parable  which  follows :  Nam  et 
illud  [scil.  argumentum  parabola^]  quant fim  ad  Scripturaj  supcrficiem,  subit6  pro- 
positum  est,  quantilui  ad  intentionem  sensfts  ct  ipsum  cohneret  mentioni  .Joannis 
malfe  tractati,  et  sugillatui  Herodis  mal6  maritati,  utriusque  exitum  deformans, 
Herodis  tormenta  et  Joannis  refrigcria. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  371 

parable:  if  that  above  proposed,  or  one  similar,  it  is.*  Nor  will  it,  say 
those  who  support  the  allegorical  explanation,  even  if  that  be  admitted, 
lose  any  of  its  obvious  practical  value :  it  will  still,  as  before,  be  a  warn- 
ing against  trust  in  the  creature,  a  declaration  of  the  fearful  conse- 
quences of  unbelief,  only  that  the  lower  selfishness  of  the  flesh  will  be 
used  as  a  symbol  to  set  forth  the  more  spiritual  selfishness.  It  will  not, 
indeed,  any  longer  he  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  parable  to  teach  the  mis- 
erable doom  which  must  follow  on  the  selfish  abuse  of  worldly  goods, 
the  living  merely  for  this  present  world  ;  but  yet  more  strikingly,  that 
miserable  doom  is  assumed  as  so  certain  and  evident,  that  it  may  be 
used  as  the  substratum  on  which  to  superinduce  another  moral,  through 
which  to  aiford  another  warning.  Whatever  might,  according  to  the 
more  usual  interpretation,  have  been  drawn  from  it,  of  earnest  warning 
for  all  the  children  of  this  present  world,  who  have  faith  in  nothing  be- 
yond it, — for  all  who  are  unmindful,  in  their  own  abundance,  of  the  infi- 
nite want  and  woe  around  them,  of  the  distresses  of  their  fellow-men, 
the  same  maj'  be  drawn  from  it  still.  Only,  in  addition  to  this  warning 
to  the  world,  it  will  yield  another  deeper  warning  to  the  Church,  that  it 
do  not  glorify  and  exalt  itself  in  the  multitude  of  its  own  blessings  and 
privileges,  but  that  it  have  a  deep  and  feeling  sense  of  the  spiritual 
wants  and  miseries  of  all  who  know  not  God,  and  that  it  seek  earnestly 
to  remove  them.  Of  this  interpretation  I  will  say  something  more 
presently  ;  it  is  plainly  not  incompatible  with  the  commonly  received 
interpretation,  to  which  it  is  now  time  to  return. 

"  There  wosacertcmi  rich  man^  tcliicJi  tvas  clothed  in  purple  and  fine 
linen,  and  fared  sumptuously^  every  day'''' — habitually  clothed,  for  so 
much  the  word  implies  :  it  was  not  on  some  high  day  that  he  thus 
arrayed  himself,  but  this  '•'•purple  and  fine  linen)''  was  his  ordinary  ap- 

*  For  a  list  of  the  interpreters,  who  have  held  one  view  and  the  other,  see 
Suicer's  Tlics.,  s.  V.  Ad(apos- 

t  Parkhurst  is  not  satisfied  with  this,  "  forcfl  sinnptuom^hj,"  which  he  thinks  an 
inadequate  rendering  of  the  original  (eixppaivSfievos  Kanirpus).  There  is  something, 
he  says,  wanting-  h:  our  version,  that  should  show  the  exultation  and  merriment  of 
heart  in  which  the  rich  man  lived.  He  proposes,  "who  lived  in  jovial  splendor;" 
and  Mr.  Greswell,  "enjoying  himself  sumptuously."  Teelman  {Cmn.  in  Laic,  xvi., 
p.  820,  scq.)  makes  the  same  olyection  to  the  Vulgate,  "epulabatur  laut6,"  and 
enters  into  the  matter  at  length  The  old  Italic  was  nearer  to  their  view,  for  it 
seems  to  have  had  (Ir^neus.  Con.  Hccr.,  1.  3,  c.  41)  jucundabatur  nitidfe.  So 
Luther,  who  translates,  "  Und  lebte  herrlich  und  in  Freuden  "  But  the  immediate 
mention  which  follows,  of  the  crumbs  ftvUing  from  the  table,  makes  it  most 
j)robable  that  some  sumptuous  feastings,  some  Eximia  voste  et  victu  convivia,  are 
here  indicated ;  and  both  \aixvpAi  and  fixppalvofiai.  if  oftener  used  in  the  other 
sense,  are  fn^iTUMitly  enough  in  this.  Ilesychius  interprets  (vuxv^ft^t  as=a 
(xxppavbfvra,  and  we  rend  of  \anirpa  iSfffnara  (Sirac.  xxix.  26). 


372  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

parel ;  so  too  his  sumptuous  fare,  it  was  his  every  day's  entertainment. 
The  extreme  co>stliness  of  the  purple  dye  of  antiquity  is  well  known  ;* 
the  honor  too  in  which  this  color  was  held ;  it  was  accounted  the 
royal  color  ;  the  purple  garment  was  then,  as  now  in  the  East,  a  royal 
gift.  (Esth.  xviii.  15;  Dan.  v.  7  ;  1  Mace.  x.  20;  xi.  58;  xiv.  43.) 
With  it  too  idols  were  often  clothed.  (Jer.  x.  9.)  There  was  as  much 
then  of  pride  as  of  luxury  in  its  use.  And  the  byssus,  which  we  have 
rightly  translated  -fine  linen"  was  hardly  in  less  price  or  esteem,t  so 
i  that  he  plainly  sought  out  for  himself  all  that  was  costliest  and  rarest. 
Yet  while  this  was  so,  it  has  often  been  observed,  and  cannot  be  ob- 
served too  often,  that  he  is  not  accused  of  any  breach  of  the  law,— not, 
like  those  rich  men  in  St.  James  (v.  1-6),  of  any  flagrant  crimes. 
"  Jesus  said  not,  a  calumniator, — he  said  not,  an  oppressor  of  the  poor, 
— he  said  not,  a  robber  of  other  men's  goods,  nor  a  receiver  of  such,  nor 
a  false  accuser, — he  said  not,  a  spoiler  of  orphans,  a  persecutor  of 
widows  :  nothing  of  these.  But  what  did  he  say  1 — •  Tliere  was  a  cer- 
tain rich  man?  And  what  was  his  crime  ? — A  lazar  lying  at  his  gate, 
and  lying  unrelieved. "|  Nor  is  he  even  accused  of  being,  as  he  is  some- 
times called,  for  instance  in  the  heading  of  the  chapter  in  our  Bibles, — 
"a  glutton.'"  To  call  him  such,  "a  Sir  Epicure  Mammon,"  serves  only 
to  turn  the  edge  of  the  parable.     For.  on  the  contrary,  there  is  nothing 

*  Tliat  is  the  true  sea-purple.  There  were  many  cheaper  substitutes  for  it : 
thus  one  in  Lucian's  Navigkim,  c.  22,  wlio  is  desiring  to  lay  out  for  himself  a  life 
like  that  of  Dives,  and  in  imagination  heaping  on  himself  every  thing  of  the 
costliest,  says.  eo-f&7)s  eVi  tovtois  aXovpyls  [that  is,  a\hs  ipyov,  the  true  work  of  the 
sea].  KoX  6  ^ios  olos  a^phTaros.  Its  rarity  arose  from  the  exceeding  small  quantity, 
but  a  few  drops,  of  the  liquid  which  served  for  the  dyeing,  found  in  each  fish. 
(Plin.,  H.  N.,  1.  9,  c.  60.)  All  modern  inquirers  have  failed  to  discover  what  shell- 
fish it  exactly  was  which  yielded  the  precious  dye.  (Winer's  Real  Worterbuch, 
s.  v.  Purpur.) 

t  Pliny  {H.  N..  1. 19,  c.  4)  tells  of  a  kind  of  byssus  which  was  exchanged  for  its 
weight  in  gold :  it  served,  he  says,  mulierum  maxima  deliciis.  It  is  not  probable, 
as  has  been  sometimes  asserted,  that  we  have  an  iv  Sia.  Svo7v  in  "purple  and  fine 
linen"  so  that  indeed  it  signifies  fine  linen  dyed  of  a  purple  hue.  Though  the 
byssus  did  sometimes  receive  this  color,  yet  its  glory  was  rather  in  its  dazzling 
whiteness;  thus  Rev.  xix.  8,  14,  "fine  linen,  lohife  and  clean;"  and  Pliny,  H.  N., 
1.  19.  c.  2,  speaking  of  the  fine  linen  of  Upper  Egypt,  Nee  ulla  sunt  eis  candore 
mollitiaque  pr^furenda ;  vestes  indc  gratisslma:.  The  byssus  here  was  the  inner 
vest,  the  purple  the  outer  robe.  The  two  occur  together.  Rev.  xviii.  12,  as  part  of 
the  merchandise  of  Babylon.  The  blue  and  white  formed  a  highly  prized  com- 
bination of  colors,  Esth.  viii.  15.  (See  the  Diet,  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Byssus, 
p.  109;  "Winer's  Rral  VVorterbuch.  s.  v.  Baumwolle;  and  Bahr's  Symbolik  d.  Mos. 
Cult..  V.  1.  pp.  .310.  338;  V.  2,  p.  72.) 

X  Augustine  {Scrvi.  178,  c.  3).  Massillon  has  one  of  his  most  deeply  impressive 
Lent  sermons  upon  this  parable,  in  which  he  labors  especially  to  bring  out  this 
point. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  373 

to  make  us  think  bim  other  than  a  reputable  man. — one  of  whom  none 
could  say  worse  than  that  he  loved  to  dwell  at  ease,  that  he  desired  to 
remove  far  off  from  himself  all  things  painful  to  the  flesh,  to  surround 
himself  with  all  things  pleasurable.  His  name  Christ  has  not  told  us, 
but  the  poor  man's  only  :*  "  Seems  he  not  to  you,"  asks  Augustine,! 
"  to  have  been  reading  from  that  book  where  he  found  the  name  of  the 
poor  man  written,  but  found  not  the  name  of  the  rich ;  for  that  book  is 
the  book  of  life?"  "Jesus,"  says  Cajetan,  "of  a  purpose  named  the 
beggar,  but  the  rich  man  he  designated  merely  as  '  a  certain  man!  so  to 
testify  that  the  spiritual  order  of  things  is  contrary  to  the  worldly.  In 
the  world,  the  names  of  the  rich  are  known,  and  when  they  are  talked 
of,  they  are  designated  by  their  names  ;  but  the  names  of  the  poor  are 
either  not  known,  or  if  known  are  counted  unworthy  to  be  particularly 
noted."t 

At  the  gate  of  the  rich  man.  whose  name  though  well  known  on 
earth,  was  thus  unrecognized  in  heaven,  the  beggar  Lazarus  was  flung 
— brought  it  may  be  thither,  by  the  last  who  took  any  care  or  charge  of 
him  upon  earth ;  and  who  now  released  themselves  gladly  of  their 
charge,  counting  they  had  done  enough  when  they  had  cast  him  under 
the  eye,  and  so  upon  the  pity,  of  one  so  easily  able  to  help  them.  The 
circumstance  that  Lazarus  was  laid  at  the  gate,  in  the  vestibule  it 
might  be,  or  open  porch,  of  the  rich  man's  palace,  which  was  probably 
henceforth  his  only  home,  this  circumstance  contains  an  ample  reply 
to  one,^  who  in  his  eagerness  to  fasten  some  charge  on  Scripture,  asserts 

*  Ao^apoj,  abridged  from  'E\e(i(apos.  and  once  called  by  Tcrtullian  Eleazar. 
There  are  two  derivations  given  of  the  name,  the  one  most  generally  received 
would  make  it,  Who  has  God  only  for  his  help ;  but  Olshausen  adheres  to  the 
other,  which  would  make  Aa^apos  =  afioriSrvros.  (See  Suicf.r's  Tkes..  s.  v.  Ao^apos.) 
It  is  a  striking  evidence  of  tlie  deep  iin[)i-ession  which  this  parable  has  made  on 
the  mind  of  Christendom,  that  the  term,  lazar.  should  have  i)assed  into  so  many 
Languages  as  it  has,  losing  altogether  its  signification  as  a  proper  name.  Euthy- 
mius  mentions  that  some  called  the  rich  man.  Nimeusis;  and  they  used  to  show, 
perhaps  still  pretend  to  show,  the  ruins  of  his  house  at  Jerusalem :  thus  an  old 
traveller:  Inde  ad  quindecim  passus  procedentibus  obviam  fiunt  aedes  (ut  volunt) 
divitis  illius  epulonis,  ex  quadratis  et  dolatis  con.structie  lapidibus,  magnifico  et 
elcganti  opere,  altis  muris  licet  ruinosis  conspicu£e. 

t  Scrm.  41. 

:j:  SoBengel:  Lazarus  nomine  suo  notus  in  cajlo:  dives  non  con.setur  nomine 
ullo. 

()  Strauss  (Lcbcnjexu.  v.  1.  p.  671).  but  he  has  had  a  forerunner  hero,  for  among 
the  essays  written  on  this  parable  there  is  one  (reiirinted  in  Ha.se's  Tkes.  Tkcol.) 
by  A.  L.  Konigsmann  which  is  entitled.  Or  Divi/c  EpuUmc  d,  Christo  imviisericor- 
ditc  non  aecusnto.  1708.  But  Grotius  rightly  remarks  that  Lazarus  was  cast,  in 
ipso  divitis  asj)ectu  ut  ignorantiam  caussari  iiullo  modo  ])osset ;  and  see  Nkandkr's 
Lebrn  Jem.  p.  205.  note.  TFc  has  a  poor  notion  of  the  Christian  law  of  love,  who 
undertakes  the  defence  of  Dives. 


374  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

that  there  is  no  reason  sufficient  given  why  the  rich  man  should  have 
been  punished  as  he  was, — that  "  his  only  crime  seems  to  have  been 
his  wealth."  The  beggar  was  cast  at  his  very  porch,  so  that  ignorance 
of  his  distresses  and  miseries  might  in  no  wise  be  pleaded.  And  even 
if  the  rich  man  did  not  know,  that  ignorance  itself  would  have  been  his 
crime,  for  it  was  his  task  to  have  made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
misery  that  was  round  him  ;  since  for  what  else  was  the  leisure  of  wealth 
given  him  ? 

As  the  rich  man's  splendid  manner  of  living  was  painted  in  a  few 
strokes,  so  in  a  few  as  expressive  is  set  forth  to  us  the  utter  misery  and 
destitution  of  Lazarus.  Like  Job,  he  was  "  full  of  sores" — hungry,  and 
no  man  gave  to  him, — for  since  it  is  evidently  our  Lord's  purpose  to  de- 
scribe the  extreme  of  earthly  destitution,  it  seems  most  probably  meant 
that  he  desired,  but  in  vain^  ''■to  be  fed  ivitli  the  crumbs  ivhich  fell  from 
the  rich  mari's  table ;"  ( Judg.  i.  7) — even  these  were  not  thrown  to  him, 
at  least  not  in  such  a  measure  that  he  could  be  satisfied  with  them.* 
Shut  out  from  human  fellowship  and  human  pity,  he  found  sympathy 
only  from  the  dumb  animals ;  '•  the  dogs  came  ami  licked  his  sores" — 
probably  the  animals  without  a  master  that  wander  through  the  streets 
of  an  Eastern  city.  (Ps.  lix.  15,  16.)  Chrysostom  indeed,  and  others 
after  him,  have  seen  in  this  circumstance  an  evidence  of  the  extreme 
weakness  and  helplessness  to  which  disease  and  want  had  reduced  him  ; 
he  lay  like  one  dead,  and  without  strength  even  to  fray  away  the  dogs, 
which  approached  to  lick  his  sores,  and  thus  to  aggravate  his  misery  by 
exasperating  their  pain.  Yet  this  is  hardly  what  is  meant :  for  medici- 
nal virtue  was  in  ancient  times  popularly  attributed  to  the  tongue  of  the 
dog  :t  being  moist  and  smooth,  it  would  certainly  not  exasperate,  but 
rather  assuage  the  pain  of  a  wound.  The  circumstance  seems  rather 
mentioned  to  enhance  the  cruelty  and  neglect  of  the  rich  man,  and  to 
set  them  in  the  strongest  light ; — man  neglected  his  fellow-man,  beheld 
his  sufferings  with  a  careless  eye  and  an  unmoved  heart,  yet  was  it  a 
misery  which  even  the  beasts  had  pity  on,  so  that  what  little  they  could 
they  did  to  alleviate  his  sufferings.  We  have  in  fact  in  the  two  descrip- 
tions stroke  for  stroke.  Dives  is  covered  with  purple  and  fine  linen  ; 
Lazarus  is  covered  only  with  sores.  The  one  fares  sumptuously,  the 
other  desires  to  be  fed  with  crumbs.  The  one,  although  this  is  left  to 
our  imagination  to  fill  up,  has  numerous  attendants  to  wait  on  his  least 
caprice,  the  other  only  dogs  to  tend  his  sores. 

*  The  words  however  which  are  found  in  the  Vulgate,  Et  nemo  illi  dabat,  do 
not  belong  here,  and  are  evidently  transferred  from  eh.  xv.  16. 

t  H.  de  Sto.  Victore:  Lingua  canis  dnm  lingit  vulnus,  curat.  (See  also  Winer, 
Real  Woiierbuch,  s.  v.  Speichel.)  Wlien  Hilary  too  {Tract,  in  Ps.  exxii.)  sets  him 
in  aggestu  fimi,  this  also  is  a  needless  exaggeration  of  bis  own. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  375 

There  is  nothing  expressly  said  concerning  the  moral  condition  of 
Lazarus — his  faith,  his  patience,  his  resignation  to  the  will  of  God.  Yet 
these  from  the  sequel  must  all  be  assumed,  since  his  poverty  of  itself 
would  never  have  brought  him  to  Abraliain's  bosom.  We  may  certainly 
assume  that  he  suffered  after  a  godly  sort,  that  he  did  not  -call  the 
proud  happy,"  nor  say  that  he  had  cleansed  his  heart  in  vain,  but  pa- 
tiently abided,  pUtting  his  trust  in  the  Lord.  But  for  this,  his  sufifer- 
ings  themselves,  however  great,  would  have  profited  him  nothing,  would 
have  brought  him  not  a  whit  nearer  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  all  homi- 
letic  use  of  the  parable,  this  should  never  be  left  out  of  siglit.  Thus 
*  Augustine  has  more  than  one  admirable  discourse,  in  which,  having 
brought  home  to  the  rich  and  great,  to  the  prosperous  children  of  the 
world,  the  awful  warning  which  is  here  for  them,  he  turns  round  to  the 
poor,  and  exhorts  them  that  they  be  not  deceived,  as  though  mere  out- 
ward poverty  were  of  itself  suflScient  to  bring  them  into  a  conformity 
with  Lazarus,  and  into  the  possession  of  the  good  things  which  he  in- 
herited. He  tells  them  that  poverty  of  spirit  must  go  along  with  that 
external  poverty,  which  last  is  to  be  looked  at,  not  as  itself  constituting 
humility,  but  only  as  a  great  help  to  it — even  as  wealth  is  to  be  regarded 
not  as  of  necessity  excluding  humility,  but  only  as  a  great  hindrance  to 
it,  a  great  temptation,  lest  they  that  have  it  be  high-minded,  and  come 
to  trust  in  those  uncertain  riches,  rather  than  in  the  living  God :  and  he 
often  bids  them  note,  how  the  very  Abraham  into  whose  bosom  Lazarus 
was  carried,  was  one  who  had  been  on  earth  rich  in  flocks,  and  in  herds, 
and  in  all  possessions.* 

But  this  worldly  glory  and  this  worldly  misery  are  alike  to  have  an 

*  Thus,  Srnn.  14,  c.  2 :  Ait  mihi  quisque  mendicus  debilitate  fossus,  pannis 
obsitu.s.  fame  languidus,  Milii  debetur  rcgnnni  ciBlorum,  ego  eniin  similis  sum  illi 
Lazaro :  Nostrum  gonus  est  cui  debetur  regnum  cjclorum,  non  illi  gencri  qui 
tiiduuntur  purimra.  ot  bysso,  et  epulantur  quotidie  splendid^.  Augustine  replies: 
Cum  ilium  sanetum  ulcerosum  te  esse  dicis,  timeo  ne  superbiendo  non  sis  quod 
dicis.  Esto  venis  pauper,  esto  plus,  esto  humilis.  Nam  si  de  ipsa,  pamiosa.  ct 
ulcerosil  paupcrtate  gloriaris,  quia  talis  fuit  illc  qui  ante  domum  divitis  inops  jacc- 
bat.  attendis  (juia  pauper  fuit  ct  aliud  non  attendis. — {Eiiarr.  in  Px.  \xxxy.  1): 
Nunqnid  ver6  ille  pauper  merito  illius  in()i)i;e  ablatus  est  ab  angelis,  dives  autem 
ille  poccato  divitiarum  suarum  ad  tormenta  missus  est  1  In  illo  paupere  huniilitas 
intelligitur  honorificata,  in  illo  divite  superbia  damnata.  Breviter  probo,  quia  non 
divitiic.  sed  superbia  in  illo  divite  (.'rncialiatur.  Cert6  ille  pauper  in  sinuni  Abrahse 
sublatus  est.  De  ipso  Abraham  dieit  Serijjtura,  quia  habcbat  hie  plurimum  auri 
et  argenti,  et  dives  fuit  in  torrS..  Si  cpii  dives  est  ad  tormenta  rapitnr,  quomodo 
Abraham  pnecesserat  pauperem,  ut  ablatum  in  sinum  suum  suseiperet  1  Sed  erat 
Abraham  in  divitiis  pauper  Jiumilis,  tremens  omnia  prajcepta  ct  obaudiens.  C£ 
Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxx.xi.  15,  and  in,  Ps.  li.  9:  Quid  tibi  i)rodest,  si  eges  facultate,  et 
ardcs  cupiditate  ?  This  last  passage  is  worth  referring  to,  for  the  profound  insight 
which  it  gives  into  the  full  meaning  of  Matt.  xix.  23-26. 


376  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

end  :  tliey  are  the  passing  shows  of  things,  not  the  abiding  realities.  "  It 
came  to  ^j(7,ss  tJuit  the  beggar  died ;"  — he  died,  and  how  mighty  the 
change  !  he  whom  but  a  moment  before  no  man  served,  whom  none  but 
the  dogs  cared  for,  is  tended  of  angels,  is  carried  by  them  into  the  bless- 
edness prepared  for  him,*  '•'■into  Abraham^ s  bosom?''  Thi^  last  phrase 
has  been  sometimes  explained  as  though  he  was  brought  into  the  cJiiefest 
place  of  honor  and  felicity,  such  as  the  sons  of  Zebedee  asked  for  them- 
selves (Matt.  XX.  23),  tliat  he  was  admitted  not  merely  to  sit  down  with 
Abraham  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  at  the  h6avenly  festival,  whereunto 
all  the  faithful  should  be  admitted,  but  to  lean  on  his  bosom,  an  honor 
of  which  one  only  could  partake,  as  John  the  beloved  disciple  leaned 
upon  Jesus'  bosom  at  the  paschal  supper.  But  this  explanation  starts 
altogether  upon  a  wrong  assumption,  since  the  image  underlying  "  Abra- 
IwAri's  bosoni''  is  not  that  of  a  feast  at  all.  Hades  is  not  the  place  of  the 
great  festival  of  the  kingdom,  which  is  reserved  for  the  actual  .setting 
up  of  that  kingdom,  and  to  which  there  is  allusion  Matt.  viii.  1 1  ;  Luke 
xiii.  29,  30.  This  is  not  a  parallel  passage  with  those,  but  rather  is  to 
find  its  explanation  from  John  i.  18,  where  the  only-begotton  Son  is  de- 
clared to  be  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father  :  it  is  a  figurative  phrase  to  ex- 
press the  deep  quietness  of  an  innermost  communion. f  Besides,  the 
Jews,  from  whom  the  phi-ase  is  borrowed,  spoke  of  all  true  believers  as 
going  to  Abraham,  as  being  received  into  his  bosom.  To  be  in  Abra- 
ham's bosom  was  equivalent  with  them  to  the  being  "  in  the  garden  of 
Eden."  or  '•  under  the  throne  of  glory,"  the  being  gathered  into  the  gen- 
eral receptacle  of  happy  but  waiting  souls  :j:  (See  Wisd.  iii.  1—3.)  The 
expression  already  existing  among  them  received  here  the  sanction  and 

*  Luther:  En  qui  dura  viveljat,  ne  unum  quidem  homincm  liabuit  amicum,  re- 
pentc  non  iinius  angeli,  sed  plnrium  niinisterio  lionoratur.  The  belief  was  current 
among  the  Jews  that  the  souls  of  the  righteous  were  carried  by  angels  into 
paradise :  there  are  frequent  allusions  to  this  in  the  apocryphal  gospels.  (See 
Thilo's  Cod.  AjMcryphus,  v.  1,  pp.  25,  4-5,  777.)  In  the  heathen  mythology  the 
task  was  assigned  to  Mercury,  irofinaAos.  y^vxoTrofiiros,  ipvxayaiyds.  So  Horace :  Tu 
pias  liv'is  animas  reponis  Sedibus. 

t  Lud  Capellus  (Spicilegium,  p.  56) :  Porro  sinus  Abraham  non  tarn  videtur  hie 
dictus  k  more  accnmbentium  mensaB  (uti  vulgo  accipitur  hfec  phrasis)  qu?im  potius 
ti  puerulis  qui  parentibus  sunt  carissimi,  quos  parentes  in  sinu  sive  gremio  fovent, 
in  quo  ctiam  suavitor  interdum  quiescunt.  And  Gerhard  {Loc.  Thadl..  loc.  27,  c. 
8,  ^  3) :  Vocatur  sinus  metaphorA  ducta.  a.  parentibus,  qui  puerulos  suos  diurni 
discursitatione  fessos,  vel  ex  jjcregrinatione  domuni  reverses,  aut  ex  advcrso  aliquo 
casu  cjulantes,  solatii  causa  in  sinum  suum  rccipiunt,  ut  ibi  suaviter  quicscant. 
Theophylact  assumes  the  image  to  be  rather  that  of  a  harbor,  where  the  fiiithful 
cast  anchor  and  are  in  quiet  alter  the  storms  and  tribulations  of  life.  This  escapes 
US  in  the  English,  but  might  be  suggested  equally  by  the  Latin  sinus  as  the  Greek 
k6\itos. 

%  See  Lightpoot's  Hor.  Heb.  m  loc. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  377 

seal  of  Christ,  and  has  come  thus  to  be  accepted  by  tlie  Church,* 
which  has  understood  by  it  in  like  manner  the  state  of  painless  expec- 
tation, of  bli.<^sful  repose,  which  should  intervene  between  the  death  of 
the  faithful  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  their  perfect  consummation  and  bl:ss 
at  his  coming  in  his  glorious  kingdom.  It  is  the  "  Paradise"  of  Luke 
xxiii.  43,  the  place  of  the  souls  under  the  altar  (Rev.  vi.  9) ;  it  is,  as 
some  distinguish  it.  blessedness,  but  not  glory.f  Hither,  to  this  haven 
of  rest  and  consolation,  Lazarus,  after  all  his  troubles,  was  safely  bornc.| 
But  ^-tlic  rich  man  also  died  and  ivas  bnried" — it  would  appear  sub- 
sequently to  Lazarus,  so  that,  as  has  been  noted,  the  mercy  of  G-od  was 
manifest  in  the  order  of  their  deaths  :  Lazarus  was  more  early  exempted 
from  tlie  miseries  of  his  earthly  lot :  Dives  was  allowed  a  longer  time 
and  space  for  repentance.  But  at  last  his  day  of  grace  came  to  an  end ; 
it  is  possible  that  the  putting  of  Lazarus  under  his  eye  had  been  his 
final  trial ;  his  neglect  of  him  the  last  drop  that,  made  the  cup  of  God's 
long-suftering  to  run  over.  Entertaining  him,  he  might  have  unawares 
entertained  angels.  He  had  let  slip,  however,  this  latest  opportunity, 
and  on  the  death  of  Lazarus  follows  hard,  as  would  seem,  his  own.  He 
'v//,so  died  and  ivas  buried P  There  is  a  sublime  irony,  a  stain  upon 
all  earthly  glory,  in  this  mention  of  his  burial,  connected  as  it  is  with 
what  is  immediately  to  follow.  No  doubt  we  are  meant  to  infer  that  he 
had  a  splendid  funeral,  all  things  according  to  the  most  approved  pomp 
of  the  world  :^  this  splendid  carrying  to  the  grave  is  for  him  what  the 
carrying  into  Abraham's  bosom  was  for  Lazarus, — it  is  liis  equivalent, 
which,  however,  profits  him  but  little  where  now  he  is.|| 

*  For  ample  quotations  from  the  Greek  Fathers,  see  Suicer's  Tlie$.,  s.  v. 
k6\i^os.  Augustine  {Ep.  187)  is  wortli  referring  to.  and  Tcrtullian  {Dc  Animd,  c. 
•")8).  Aquinas  {Su7n.  ThcoL,  j.ars  3«.  <\n.  52.  art.  2)  gives  the  view  of  the  middle 
ages  ;  Cajetan.  of  the  modern  Romish  Clinrch.  which,  for  good  reasons  of  its  own, 
has  always  depressed  as  much  as  jjossihle  the  felicity  of  that  middle  state :  In 
limbo  i)atrum  erat  consolatio,  turn  securitatis  aeternaj  beatitudinis.  turn  sanctae 
societatis.  turn  exeniptionis  ab  onini  poena,  senstis.  Liniborch  {Throl.  Christ..  1.  6, 
0.  10  K)  8)  lias  a  striking  passage,  in  which,  starting  from  the  Serijitural  phrase  of 
death  as  a  sleep,  he  compares  the  intermediate  state  of  the  good  to  a  sweet  and 
joyful  dream,  while  the  wicked  are  as  men  afflicted  with  horrible  and  frightful 
dreams,  each  being  to  waken  on  the  reality  of  the  tkings  of  which  he  has  been 
dreannng ;  in  this  agreeing-  with  TertuUian,  who  calls  that  state  a  prajlibatio 
scnteiitiiP. 

f  Beatitndo,  but  not  gloria. 

I  Augustine  {Stvi.  41):  Sarcina  Christi,  pcnnae  sunt.  His  pennis  ille  pauper 
in  sinuni  Abrahse  volavit. 

()  Secniariter  fucata  :  Augustine. 

II  See  for  a  noble  passage  on  the  rich  man's  burial  Augustine  (Enarr.  in  Ps. 
xlviii.  18):  Sjuritus  torqiu'tur  apud  inferos,  (piid  illi  prodest  quia  corpus  jacet  in 
cinnamis  et  aromatibus  involutum  pretiosis  linteisl     Tamiuam  si  doniiiius  domfts 


378  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

For  his  death  is  for  him  an  awakening  from  his  flattering  dream  of 
ease  and  pleasure  and  delight  upon  the  stern  and  terrible  realities  of 
the  life  to  come.  He  has  sought  to  save  his  life,  and  has  lost  it.  The 
play  in  which  he  acted  the  rich  man  is  ended,  and  as  he  went  off  the 
stage,  he  was  stripped  bare  of  all  the  trappings  with  which  he  had  been 
furnished,  that  he  might  sustain  his  part :  all  that  remains  is  the  fact 
that  he  has  played  it  badly,  and  so  will  have  no  praise,  but  rather  ex- 
tremest  blame,  from  him  who  allotted  him  the  character  to  sustain.* 


mittatur  in  exiliura,  et  tu  ornes  parietes  Ipsius.  Ille  in  exilio  eget,  et  fame  deficit, 
vix  sibi  unam  cellam  invenit  ubi  somnum  capiat,  et  tu  dicis,  Felix  est,  nam  ornata 
est  domiis  illius.  The  wliole  exposition  of  tlie  Psalm  is  fall  of  interesting  matter 
in  regard  of  this  parable.  Cf  Enarr.  in  Ps.  xxxiii.  22. — According  to  Jewish 
notions,  it  was  this  very  burial  which  handed  him  over  to  his  torments,  for  in  the 
book  Sohar  it  is  said :  Anima  quse  non  est  justa  in  hoc  mundo  permanet,  donee 
corpus  sepultum  est,  quo  facto  ipsa  deducitur  in  gehennam. 

*  Both  these  images,  that  of  awaking  from  a  dream  of  delight,  and  bringing  to 
an  end  some  proud  part  in  a  play,  are  used  by  Chrysostom  to  set  forth  the  altered 
condition  of  the  rich  man  after  his  death.  Ad  Theod.  Laps.,  1.  1,  c.  8:  "For  as 
they  who  toil  in  the  mines,  or  undergo  some  other  penalty  more  terrible  even  than 
this,  when  perchance  they  fall  to  sleep  under  their  many  labors  and  their  most 
bitter  existence,  and  in  dreams  behold  themselves  lapped  in  delights  and  in  all  rich 
abundance,  yet  after  they  are  awakened  owe  no  thanks  to  their  dreams ;  so  also 
that  rich  man,  as  in  a  dream  being  wealthy  for  this  present  life,  after  his  migration 
Jience  was  punished  with  that  bitter  punishment."  And  again  {Dc  Laz.,  Cone. 
11)  :  "  For  as  on  the  stage  some  enter,  assuming  the  masks  of  kings  and  captains, 
physicians  and  orators,  philosophers  and  soldiers,  being  in  truth  nothing  of  the 
kind,  so  also  in  the  present  life,  wealth  and  poverty  are  only  masks.  As  then, 
when  thou  sittest  in  the  theatre,  and  beh oldest  one  playing  below,  who  sustains 
the  part  of  a  king,  thou  dost  not  count  him  happy,  nor  esteemest  him  a  king,  nor 
desirest  to  be  such  as  he ;  but  knowing  him  to  be  one  of  the  common  people,  a 
ropcmaker  or  a  blacksmith,  or  some  such  a  one  as  this,  thou  dost  not  esteem  him 
happy  for  his  mask  and  his  robe's  sake,  nor  judgest  of  his  condition  from  these,  but 
boldest  him  cheap  for  the  meanness  of  his  true  condition :  so  also,  here  sitting  in 
the  world  as  in  a  theatre,  and  beholding  men  playing  as  on  a  stage,  when  thou  seest 
many  rich,  count  them  not  to  be  truly  rich,  but  to  be  wearing  the  masks  of  rich. 
For  as  he,  who  on  the  stage  plays  the  king  or  captain,  is  often  a  slave,  or  one  who 
sells  figs  or  grapes  in  the  market,  so  also  this  rich  man  is  often  in  reality  poorest  of 
all.  For  if  thou  strip  him  of  his  mask,  and  unfold  his  conscience,  and  scrutinize 
his  inward  parts,  thou  wilttthere  find  a  great  penury  of  virtue,  thou  wilt  find  him 
to  be  indeed  the  most  abject  of  men.  And  as  in  the  theatre,  when  evening  is  come 
and  the  spectators  are  departed,  and  the  players  are  gone  forth  thence,  having  laid 
aside  their  masks  and  their  dresses,  then  they  who  before  showed  as  kings  and 
captains  to  all,  appear  now  as  they  truly  are  ;  so  now,  when  death  apjiroaches  and 
the  audience  is  dismissed,  all  laying  aside  the  masks  of  wealth  and  of  poverty 
depart  from  hence,  and  being  judged  only  by  their  works,  appear  some  indeed 
truly  rich,  but  some  poor;  and  some  glorious,  but  others  without  honor."  Cf. 
Augustine,  Servi.  345.  Arndt  {De  Vera  Christ.,  1.  1,  c.  20)  has  a  fine  comparison  to 
set  forth  the  same  truth.    Of  such  as  the  rich  man  in  our  parable,  he  says :  Quos 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  379 

From  this  verse  the  scene  of  the  parable  passes  beyond  the  range  of 
our  experience  into  the  unknown  world  of  spirits,  but  not  beyond  the 
range  of  his  eye  to  whom  both  worlds,  that  and  this,  are  alike  open  and 
manifest.  He  appears  as  much  at  home  there  as  here;  he  moves  in 
that  world  as  with  a  perfect  familiarity,  speaking  without  astonishment, 
as  of  things  which  he  knows  He  still  indeed  continues  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  men,  as  the  only  language  by  which  he  could  make  himself 
intelligible  to  men.  Yet  is  it  not  easy  now  to  separate  between  what  is 
merely  figure,  vehicle  for  truth,  and  what  is  to  be  held  fast  as  itself 
essential  truth.*  We  may  safely  say  that  the  form  in  which  the  ex- 
pi-ession  of  pain,  and  of  desire  after  alleviation,  embodies  itself,  is  figu- 
rative, even  as  the  dialogue  between  Abraham  and  Dives  belongs  in  the 
same  way  to  the  parabolical  clothing  of  the  truth.  It  is  indeed  the  hope 
and  longing  after  deliverance  which  alternately  rises,  and  is  again 
crushed  by  the  voice  of  the  condemning  law  speaking  in  and  through 
the  conscience : — as  by  the  seeing  of  Lazarus  in  Abraham's  bosom,  is 
conveyed  to  us  the  truth,  that  the  misery  of  the  wicked  will  be  aggra- 
vated by  the  comparison  which  they  will  continually  be  making  of  their 
lost  estate  with  the  blessedness  of  the  faithful. 

But  to  return  ;  he  that  had  that  gorgeous  funeral,  is  now  "  in  liell^^ 
or  '■  in  Hades"  rather  ;  for  as  •'  Ahraham^s  bosom"  is  not  heaven,  though 
it  will  issue  in  heaven,  so  neither  is  Hades  "  Ac//,"  though  to  issue  in  it, 
when  death  and  Hades  shall  be  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  which  is  the 
proper  hell.  (Rev.  xx.  14.)  It  is  the  place  of  painful  restraint,!  where 
the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  reserved  to  the  judgment  of  the  great  day  j 

homines  fortasse  non  malfe  caraelis  et  mulis  comparaveris ;  nam  ut  illi  per  rupes 
montiumquc  edita  vestes  sericas.  gemmas.  aromata,  et  generosa  vina  dorso  vehen- 
tos.  iignien  quasi  quoddam  famulonini  custodia'  et  securitatis  causa  .secum  trahunt, 
siniulac  vero  circa  vesperani  in  stabuluni  venerint,  pr^tiosoruni  ornamentorum  ves- 
tiuni((nc  pictarnm  apparatus  illis  detraliitur,  jamquc  lassi  et  onini  comitatu  nudati 
nil  nisi  vibices  et  livida  plagarum  vestigia  ostentant:  Ita  qui  in  hoc  niundo  auro  et 
serico  nituerunt.  obitds  extrema  vesperA  irruente,  nihil  liabent  propter  vibices  et 
cicatrices  peccatorum  per  abusuni  divitiarum  sibi  impressas.  Sliakspeare  has  the 
same  thought : 

"If  Ihnu  art  rich,  thou  art  poor, 

For  like  an  ass  whose  back  with  ingots  bows, 

Thou  bear'st  thy  heavy  riches  but  a  journey. 

And  death  unloads  thee." 

*  Tlierc  were  some  in  Augustine's  time  that  took  all  tliis  to  tlie  letter,  but  he 
has  more  doubts  and  misgivings  {De  Gen.  ad  Lit.,  1.  8,  c.  6):  Sed  quomodo  in- 
telligenda  sit  ilia  flamma  inferni  ille  sinus  Abrahaj.  ilia  lingua  divitis.  ille  digitus 
pauperis  ilia  sitis  torraenti.  ilia  stilla  refrigerii,  vix  fortasse  a  mansuetfe,  qua*renti- 
bus  a  contentil)s^  autem  certantibus  nun(iuam.  invenitur.  TertuUian  {Dc  Anima, 
c.  7)  has  of  course  taken  it  all  literally. 

t  *v\aKi]  (1  Pet.  iii.  18)  =  &$vaaos  (Luke  viii.  31). 


380  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

it  is  "  the  deep"  whither  the  devils  prayed  that  they  might  not  be  sent 
to  be  tormented  before  their  time  (Luke  viii.  31), — for  as  that  otlier 
blessed  place  has  a  foretaste  of  heaven,  so  has  this  place  a  foretaste  of 
hell ;  Dives  being  there  is  "  in  tornients^''  stripped  of  all  wherein  his 
soul  delighted  and  found  its  satisfaction  ;  his  purple  robe  has  become  a 
garment  of  fire  ;*  as  he  himself  describes  it,  he  is  "  tormented  in  this 
Jlame." 

For  a  while  we  may  believe  that  he  found  it  impossible  to  realize  his 
present  position,  to  connect  his  present  self  with  his  past ;  all  for  a  while 
may  have  seemed  to  him  only  as  some  fearful  dream.  But  when  at 
length  he  had  convinced  himself  that  it  was  not  indeed  this  dream,  but 
an  awaking,  and  would  take  tlie  measure  of  his  actual  condition,  then, 
and  that  he  might  so  do,  "  he  lifted  up  his  eyes^  and  seeth  Abraham  afar 
off.  and  Lazarus  in  his  bosom."  (Isai.  Ixv.  13,  14.)  '•'■  A^td  he  cried  and 
said.,  FatJter  Abraham"  still  clinging  to  the  hope  that  his  descent 
from  Abraham,  his  fleshly  privileges,  will  profit  him  something :  he 
would  plead  that  he  has  Abraham  to  his  father,  though  it  was  indeed 
this  which  made  his  sin  so  great,  his  fall  so  deep.  This,  which  was 
once  his  glory,  is  now  the  very  stress  of  his  guilt.  That  he,  a  son  of 
Abraham,  the  man  of  that  liberal  hand  and  princely  heart,  the  man  in 
whom,  as  the  head  of  their  great  family,  every  Jew  was  reminded  of  his 
kinship  with  every  other,  of  the  one  blood  in  their  veins,  of  the  one  hope 
in  God  which  ennobled  them  all  from  the  least  to  the  greatest, — should 
have  so  sinned  against  the  mighty  privileges  of  his  condition,  should 
have  so  denied  through  his  life,  all  which  the  name  "  son  of  Abraham" 
was  meant  to  teach  him,  it  was  this  which  had  brought  him  to  that  place 
of  torment.  Nor  does  Abraham  deny  the  relationship,  for  he  addresses 
him  not  as  a  stranger  but  a  son,  yet  thus,  in  the  very  allowance  of  the 
relationship,  coupled  with  the  refusal  of  the  request,  rings  the  knell  of 
his  latest  hope.  Poor  and  infinitely  slight  was  the  best  alleviation  which 
he  had  looked  for, — a  drop  of  water  on  his  fiery  tongue  !  So  shrunken 
are  his  desires,  so  low  is  the  highest  hope  which  even  he  himself  ven- 
tures to  entertain.!  Nothing  could  have  marked  so  strongly  how  far 
he  has  fallen,  how  conscious  he  has  himself  become  of  the  depth  of  his 
fall. 

In  this  prayer  of  the  rich  man  we  have  the  only  invocation  of  saints 
in  Scripture,  and  certainly  not  a  very  encouraging  one.  He  can  speak 
of  ^'•father  Abraham"  and  his  ^\fathcr''s  house."  but  there  is  another 
Father,  of  whom  he  will  know  nothing — the  Father  whom  the  Prodigal 


*  Augustine  {Serm.  36,  c.  6):    Successit  ignis  purpurae  et  bysso:   ed.  tunicA 
ardebat.  qu&.  sc  cxspoliare  non  potcrat. 

t  Augustine  :  Superbus  tcniporis,  mendicus  inferni. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  331 

had  found.  For  he  is  as  far  as  heaven  is  from  hell,  from  the  faith  of 
the  prophet :  -  Doubtless  tlunt  art  our  Father,  though  Abraham  be  igno- 
rant of  us,  and  Israel  acknowledge  us  not."  And  tlie  pity  wliich  he 
refused  to  show,  he  fails  to  obtain.  We  have  here  the  reverse  of  the 
beatitude,  "Blessed  are^the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy."  | 
With  what  measure  he  meted,  it  is  measured  to  him  again.  Tlie  crumbs 
whicli  he  denied,  issue  in  the  drop  of  water  which  is  denied  to  him.* 
Here  is  one  who  has  not  obeyed  the  admonition  of  the  preceding  para- 
ble, who  has  not  made  friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  and 
now  that  he  has  failed,  has  none  to  receive  him  into  everlasting  habita- 
tions. That  Abraham's  reply  contains  a  refusal  of  his  petition  is  clear  • 
yet  it  is  not  so  certain  what  exact  meaning  we  shall  attribute  to  his 
words:  "  Thmi  in  thy  lifetime  recdvedst  tity good  things?^  There  are 
two  explanations  ; — the  first  and  the  commonest  one  would  make  ^' thy 
good  things,"  to  signify,  temporal  felicities :  these,  which  were  goods  to 
thee,  which  thou  esteemedst  the  best  and  highest  goods,  and  wouldst 
know  of  no  other,  thou  receivedst :  and  Abraham's  reply  would  then  be 
this :  "  Son,  thou  hadst  thy  choice,  the  things  eternal  or  the  things  tem- 
poral, tliis  life  or  that :  thou  didst  chooso  that :  but  now,  when  that  is 
run  through,  it  is  idle  to  think  of  altering  thy  choice,  and  having  even 
the  slightest  portion  in  this  life  also."  But  the  other  explanation  that 
would  make  "  thy  good  things "  to  be  good  actions  or  good  qualities, 
wliicli  in  some  small  measure  Dives  possessed,  and  for  which  he  received 
in  this  life  his  reward,  I  cannot  give  better  than  in  the  words  of  Bishop 
Suiulerson.f  The  answer  of  Abraham  was  as  though  he  had  said,  "  If 
thou  hatlst  any  thing  good  in  thee,  remember  thou  hast  had  thy  re- 
ward in  cartli  already,  and  now  there  remaineth  for  thee  notliing  but  the 
full  }»uui.'<hnient  of  thine  ungodliness  there  in  hell:  but  as  for  Lazarus 
he  hatli  liad  the  chastisement  of  his  infirmities  [his  'evil  things'']  on 
earth  already,  and  now  remaineth  for  him  nothing  but  the  full  reward 
of  \\\^  iroflliiiess  here  in  heaven."  Presently  before  he  has  said.  "  For  as 
God  rovardctli  ' hose  few  good  things  that  are  in  evil  men  with  these 
tem[i<iiai  bcncfit.s.  for  whom  yet  in  his  justice  he  reserveth  eternal  dam- 
nation. MS  the  due  wages,  by  that  justice,  of  their  graceless  impenitency, 
so  ho  ]ninisl;etb  those  remnants  of  sin  that  are  in  godly  men  with  these 
temporal  afflictions,  for  whom  yet  in  his  mercy  he  reserveth  eternal  sal-- 
vation.  as  trie  due  wages,  yet  by  that  mercy  only,  of  their  faith  and  re- 
pentance and  holy  obedience."     This  was  Chrysostom's  view  of  the  pas- 


*  Augiistiiio:  Dt'si(l<^ravit  guttam.  qui  non  dedit  niicam ;  a  thought  which 
makes  Gnirory  the  Groat  o.xclaini  {Horn.  40  in  Evtiin:.):  Oil  (luanta  est  subtiUtaa 
judi<;i<>riiui  Dc-i  I     And  Biiigcl  ob.si'ivcs.  Lingua  inaximis  peccftrat. 

t  In  a  N'Tnioii  on  Aliab'.s  repentance  (1  Kiu.  xxi.  29). 


382  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

sage,*  and  Gregory  the  Great,  who  in  general  follows  Augustine,t  has 
here  an  indepandent  exposition,  and  strongly  maintains  this  meaning  of 
the  words,!  which  has  certainly  something  to  commend  it. 

But  whether  there  be  in  the  words  such  a  meaning  or  not,  this  is  in 
them,  as  in  so  many  other  passages  of  Scripture,  namely,  that  the  re- 
ceiving of  this  world's  good  without  any  portion  of  its  evil,  the  course  of 
an  unbroken  prosperity,  is  ever  a  sign  and  augury  of  ultimate  reproba- 
tion.^ (Ps.  xvii.  4;  Luke  vi.  24,  25.)  Nor  is  the  reason  of  this  hard  to 
perceive ;  for  there  being  in  every  man  a  large  admixture  of  that  dross 
which  has  need  to  be  purged  out,  and  which  can  only  be  purged  out  by 
the  fire  of  pain  and  affliction,  he  who  is  not  cast  into  this  fire  is  left 
with  all  his  dross  in  him,  with  his  evil  unpurged,  and  therefore  can  be 
no  partaker  of  that  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see  God. 
Thus  Dives,  to  his  endless  loss,  had  in  this  life  received  good  things 
without  any  share  of  evil.||  But  now  all  is  changed:  Lazarus,  who  re- 
ceived in  this  mortal  life  evil  things,  is  comforted,  but  Dives  is  torment- 
ed ;  for  he  had  sown  only  to  the  flesh,  and  therefore,  when  the  order  of 
things  has  commenced  in  which  the  flesh  has  no  part,  he  can  only  reap 
in  misery  and  emptiness,  in  the  hungry  longing  and  unsatisfied  desire  of 
the  soul. 

Moreover,  besides  that  law  of  retaliation,  which  requires  that  the 
unmerciful  should  not  receive  mercy,  the  fact  is  brought  home  to  the 


*  De  Laz.,  Cone.  3.  He  lays  a  stress  on  the  aireXafiei,  recepisti,  not  «ccepisti ; 
see  too  Theophylact  (in  loc.)  Certainly  the  other  five  passages  of  St.  Luke,  in 
which  a.-rrnXa/x^a.i'eiv  occurs  (vi.  34,  twice;  xv.  27;  xviii.  30;  xxiii.  41),  quite  bear 
him  out  in  his  remark. 

•f-  Augustine's  exclamation  here,  0  niundi  bona,  apud  inferos  mala  !  shows  that 
the  explanation  was  his. 

■^  Horn.  40  ill  Evang. :  Dum  dicitur,  Recepisti  bona  in  vita,  tua,  indicatur  et 
Dives  iste  bonialiquid  habuisse,  ex  quo  in  hac  vita  bona  reciperet.  Rursumque, 
dum  de  Lazaro  dicitur,  quia  recepit  mala,  profect6  monstratur  et  Lazarus  habuisse 
malum  aliciuod,  quod  purgaretur.  Scd  ilium  paupertas  afflixit  et  tersit,  istum 
abundantia  renuineravit  et  repulit.  Cf.  Moral.,  1.  5,  c.  1.  In  like  manner  the 
Jewish  doctors  said :  Quemadmodum  in  seculo  future  piis  rependitur  prremium 
boni  operis  etiara  levissimi.  quod  perpetrarunt,  ita  in  seculo  hoc  rependitur  impiis 
prsemium  cujuscunque  levissimi  boni  operis,— a  saying  which  Gfrorer  {Urchristen- 
thum,  V.  2,  p.  171)  applies  here. 

§  Augustine :  Quid  infellcius  felicitate  peccantium  1 

II  Thus  in  the  Jewish  books  the  scholar  of  an  eminent  Rabbi  found  his  master 
one  day  in  extreme  affliction  and  pain,  and  began  to  laugh,  while  all  the  other 
scholars  were  weeping  round  him.  Being  upbraided  for  this,  he  answered,  that 
while  he  saw  in  times  past  his  master  in  such  uninterrupted  prosperity,  he  had 
often  feared  Vest  he  was  receiving  his  portion  in  tliis  world ;  but  now  seeing  him 
so  afflicted,  lie  took  courage  again,  and  believed  that  his  good  things  were  still  to 
come.     (Meuschen's  N.  T.  cx  Talm.,  illust.,  p.  66.) 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  383 

conscience  of  him  who  was  once  tne  rich  man,  that  with  death  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  elements  of  good  and  evil,  elements  which  in  this  world  are 
mingled  and  in  confusion,  begins.  Like  is  gathered  to  like,  good  by  na- 
tural affinity  to  good,  and  evil  to  evil — and  this  separation  is  permanent. 
'■' Beticeoi  us  and  you  thei-e'is  a  great  guJffixcd^''  not  a  mere  haudbreadth 
only,  as  the  Jews  fabled,  but  "  a  great  gulf^''  and  not  merely  tliere,  but 
'■'■fixed"*  there, — an  eternal  separation,  a  yawning  chasm,  too  deep  to 
be  filled  up,  too  wide  to  be  bridged  over,  so  that  there  is  no  passing  from 
one  side  to  the  other ;  "  Tkcy  tcho  looidd  jmss  from  Jience  to  you  cannot^ 
neither  can  they  pass  to  us  that  loouJd  come  from  thence  "  Now,  the  lat- 
ter affirmation  is  easily  intelligible,  for  we  can  quite  understand  the  lost 
desiring  to  pass  out  of  their  state  of  pain  to  the  place  of  rest  and  blessed- 
ness, but  it  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  understand  the  reverse — •'  tlicy  loho 
%vouhl  pass  from  Jicnce  to  you  cannot."  The  desii'e  of  passing  thither 
cannot,  of  course,  be  for  the  purpose  of  changing  their  condition  ;  but 
they  cannot  pass,  he  would  say,  even  for  a  season,  they  have  no  power 
to  yield  even  a  moment's  solace  to  any  that  are  in  that  place,  however 
they  may  desire  it.  Yet  here  the  difficulty  suggests  itself,  Can  they, 
being  full  of  love,  otherwise  than  greatly  desire  it?  Nay,  is  not  such  a 
longing  implied  in  the  very  words  of  Abraham?  And  if  they  do  thus 
greatl}'  desire  it,  and  yet  it  may  not  be,  must  not  this  trouble  and  cast  a 
shade  even  upon  a  heavenly  felicity?  A  question  which  must  wait  for 
its  solution  ;  for  all  the  answers  which  commonly  are  given  do  not 
reach  it. 

But  tliougli,  repulsed  for  himself,  he  has  yet  a  request  to  urge  for 
others.  If  Abraham  cannot  send  Lazarus  to  that  world  of  woe,  at  least 
he  can  cause  him  to  return  to  the  earth  which  he  has  so  lately  quitted ; 
there  is  no  such  gulf  intervening  there: — '■•  I  pray  tliee^  therefore,  father^ 
that  thou  wouldst  send  him  to  my  father^  s  house.,  for  I  have  jive  brethren^ 
that  he  may  testify  unto  tJiem.,  lest  they  also  come  unto  this  ])lace  of  tor- 
ment." He  and  they,  Sadducecs  at  heart,  though  it  might  be  Pharisees 
in  name,  perhaps  oftentimes  had  mocked  together,  at  that  unseen  world 
which  now  he  was  finding  so  fearful  a  reality  ;t  and  that  it  was  such,  he 
would  now  desire  by  Lazarus  to  warn  them.  Lazarus  will  be  able  to 
"  testify^"  to  speak,  that  is,  of  things  which  he  has  seen.|    In  this  anxiety 

*  Augustine  {Ad  Evod.,  Ep.  164) :  Hiatus  .  .  .  non  sol&m  est,  variira  ctiam 
firniatus  est. 

f  Augn.stine  (Scrra.  41)  :  Non  flu1)ito  (luia  cum  ip.sis  fratribus  suis  kniucns  de 
Proplu'tis  inoncntibus  bona,  prohibuntibus  mala,  terrontibus  do  tornu'ntis  futuris, 
et  futura  jiiiumia  proniittcntibus,  irridebat  bicc  onuiia,  dicen.s  cum  fratribus  suis, 
Qua)  vita  i)o.st  mortem  1  quae  memoria  putrcdinis'?  ijui  sunsus  ciucris  1  .  .  .  quis 
iade  reversus  auditus  est  1 

■^  In  the  legend  of  Er  the  Pamphylian  (Plato's  Jicp.,  1.  10,  c.  13),  bo  is  to 


384  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

for  his  brethren's  good,  which  he,  who  hitherto  had  been  merely  selfish, 
expresses,  some  have  found  the  evidence  of  a  better  mind  beginning,  and 
the  proof  that  suffering  was  alreadj^  doing  its  work  in  him.  was  awaken- 
ing in  him  the  slumbering  germ  of  good.*  With  this  view,  were  it  the 
right  one.  would  of  necessity  be  connected  his  own  ultimate  restoration. 
and  the  whole  doctrine  of  future  suffering  not  being  vindictive  and  eter- 
nal, but  corrective  and  temporary :  a  doctrine  which  will  always  find 
favor  with  all  those  who  have  no  deep  insight  into  the  evil  of  sin,  no 
earnest  view  of  the  task  and  responsibilities  of  life ;  especially  when,  as 
too  often,  they  are  bribed  to  hold  it  by  a  personal  interest,  by  a  lurking 
consciousness  that  they  themselves  are  not  earnestly  striving  to  enter  at 
the  strait  gate,  that  their  own  standing  in  Christ  is  insecure  or  none. 
But  the  rich  man's  request  grows  out  of  another  root.  There  lies  in  it 
a  secret  justifying  of  himself,  and  accusing  of  Grod.  What  a  bitter  re- 
proach against  God  and  against  the  old  economy  is  here  involved :  "  If 
only  I  had  been  sufficiently  warned,  if  only  Grod  had  given  me  sufficient- 
ly clear  evidence  of  these  things,  of  the  need  of  repentance,  of  this  place 
as  the  goal  of  a  sensual  worldly  life,  I  had  never  come  hither.  But 
though  I  was  not  duly  warned,  let  at  least  my  brethren  be  so." 

Abraham's  answer  is  brief  and  almost  stern ;  rebuking,  as  was  fit. 
this  evil  thought  of  his  heart :  '■  They  are  warned  ;  they  have  enough  to 
keep  them  froin  your  place  of  torment,  if  only  they  will  use  it.  They 
have  Moses  and  tltc prophets^  let  them  hear  themP  Our  Lord  then  clear- 
ly did  not  see  an  entire  keeping  back  of  the  doctrine  of  life  eternal  and 
an  after  retribution  in  the  Pentateuch,  bat  to  hear  Moses  was  to  hear  of 
these  things  :  as  elsewhere  more  at  length  he  showed.  (Matt.  xxii.  31. 
32.)  But  the  suppliant  will  not  so  easily  be  put  to  silence.  '•  Nay^  fa- 
tlier  Ahraham.  hut  if  one  loent  unto  them  from  the  dead  they  xoill  repent?'' 
As  it  is  true  of  the  faithful  that  their  works  do  follow  them,  and  that  their 
temper  here  is  their  temper  in  heaven,  so  not  less  does  this  man's  con- 
tempt of  God's  word,  which  he  showed  on  earth,  following  him  beyond 
the  grave  if  that  Word  cannot  suffice  to  save  men ;  they  must  have 
something  else  to  lead  them  to  repentance.  We  have  here  re-appearing 
in  hell  that  "  Show  us  a  sign  that  we  may  believe,"  which  was  so  often 

return  from  the  place  where  souls  are  judged,  &/ye\ov  ap^pZirois  yevecr^ai  tuv  eKe7, 
of  the  greatness  of  the  rewards  of  the  just,  the  dreadmlness  of  the  doom  of  sin- 
ners. 

*  Aquinas  (Sum.  Thcol.,  Siipp.  ad  3™  jmrt.,  qu.  98,  art.  4)  has  a  discussion  to 
which  tliis  verse  gives  occasion :  Utrum  damnati  in  inferno  vellent  alios  esse 
damnatos,  qui  non  sunt  damnati  1  He  determines,  despite  this  passage,  that  they 
would. 

t  Bengel:  Vilipendium  Scripture  miser,  rclictu  luxu,  secum  intulit  in  in- 
ferno. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AXD  LAZARUS.  385 

on  the  lips  of  the  Pharisees  on  earth.  They  believe,  or  at  least  think 
they  would  believe,  signs  and  portents,  but  will  not  believe  God's  Word. 
(Isai.  viii.  19,  20.)  A  vain  expectation  !  for  in  the  words  of  Abraham, 
"  If  they  /tear  not  Moses  and  the  propliets^  neitJier  tvill  they  be  ■persuaded, 
though  one  rose  from  the  dead.''''  These  words  demand  to  be  accurately 
considered.  Dives  had  said,  '•  they  tvill  repent ;"  Abraham  replies,  they 
will  not  even  "4e  ^je;-5-Maf/€r/."     Dives  had  said,  '•'■if  one  loeM  unto  them 

from  the  dead ;"  Abraham,  with  a  prophetic  glance  at  the  world's  unbe- 
lief in  far  greater  matter,  makes  answer,  "  No,  not  if  one  rose  from  tlie 
dcadP  He  in  fact  is  saying  to  him,  "  A  far  greater  act  than  you  de- 
mand would  be  ineffectual  for  producing  a  far  slighter  effect :  you  sup- 
pose that  wicked  men  would  repent  on  the  return  of  a  spirit ;  I  tell  you 
they  would  not  even  be  persuaded  by  the  rising  of  one  from  the  dead."* 
This  reply  of  Abraham's  is  most  weighty,  for  the  insight  it  gives  us 
into  the  nature  of  faith,  that  it  is  a  moral  act,  an  act  of  the  will  and  the 
affections  no  less  than  of  the  understanding,  something  therefore  which 
cannot  be  forced  by  signs  and  miracles :  for  where  tliere  is  a  determined 
alienation  of  the  will  and  affections  from  the  truth,  no  impression  which 
these  miracles  will  make,  even  if  they  be  allowed  to  be  genuine,  will  be 
more  than  transitory.  Nor  will  there  fail  always  to  be  a  loophole  some- 
where or  other,  by  whicli  unbelief  can  escape  ;t  and  this  is  well,  or  we 
should  have  in  the  Church  the  faith  of  devils,  who  believe  and  tremble. 
When  the  histdrical  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  dead,  the  Pharisees 
were  not  by  this  miracle  persuaded  of  the  divine  mission  and  authority 

"of  Christ,  and  yet  they  did  not  deny  the  reality  of  the  miracle  itself. 
(John  xi.  47;  xii.  10.)  A  greater  too  than  Lazarus  has  returned  from 
the  world  of  spirits ;  nay  has  arisen  from  the  dead ;  and  yet  what  mul- 
titudes who  acknowledge  the  fact,  and  acknowledge  it  as  setting  a  seal 
to  all  his  claims  to  be  heard  and  obeyed,  yet  are  not  brought  by  this 
acknowledgment  at  all  nearer  to  repentance  and  the  obedience  of  faith. 
And  it  is  very  observable,  how  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  Abraham's  refu- 
sal to  send  Lazf^rus.  the  Lord  himself  acted  after  his  resurrection.  He 
showed  himself,  not  to  tlie  Phari.sees,  not  to  his  enemies,  '•  not  to  all  the 
people,  but  unto  witnesses  chosen  before  of  God"  (Acts  x,  41),  to  his 

*  It  is  a  pity  that  we  have  not  given  the  ii.v  tis  of  vcr.  31,  "  if  one,"  a.s  we 
liave  rightly  done  in  the  vcr.so  iirccediiig.  Observe  the  change  of  words :  Tropeu,^ 
in  the  rccnu-st  of  Dives;  ctcao-TJ/ in  the  reply  of  Abraham;  a.tr6  veKpwy  in  the  re- 
quest ;  4k  vtKpwv  m  tlie  reply. 

t  "When  for  instance  Spinoza  declared  himself  ready  to  renounce  his  system 
and  to  become  a  Christian,  if  only  he  were  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  raising 
of  the  historical  Lazarus,  he  knew  very  well  that  in  his  sense  of  the  word  convince, 
and  with  the  kind  of  evidence  that  he  would  have  required,  it  was  impossible  to- 
satisfy  liis  demand.  (See  Bayle  Diction.,  Art.  Spinoze,  note  a.) 
25 


386  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

own  disciples  alone.  It  was  a  judgment  on  the  others,  that  no  sign 
should  be  given  them  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonah,  yet  it  was  a 
mercy  also,  for  they  would  not  have  been  persuaded,  even  by  one  that 
had  risen  from  the  dead.  At  the  same  time  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
in  Christ's  resurrection  there  was  a  satisfaction  of  the  longing  of  man's 
heart,  that  one  should  return  from  the  world  beyond  the  grave,  and  give 
assurance  of  the  reality  of  that  world, — a  longing  which  Abraham  could 
not  satisfy,  but  which  Christ  did,  when  he  died  and  rose  again,  and  ap" 
peared  unto  men,  having  the  keys  of  death  and  of  Hades.*  • 

It  remains  only  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of  their  interpretation,  who 
maintain  that,  besides  its  literal  meaning,  the  parable  has  also  an  alle- 
gorical ; — though  of  these  some  find  this  only  by  the  way,  and  as  some- 
thing merely  subordinate,  an  interpretation  which  they  throw  out  and 
leave  to  every  one  to  allow  it  what  value  he  chooses :  while  others  make 
it  the  chief  moral  of  the  parable,  and  affirm  that  it  was  the  primary  pur. 
pose  of  the  Lord  to  set  forth  the  relations  between  Jew  and  Gentile. 
Dives  then,  as  already  has  been  said,  represents  the  Jewish  nation  clad 
in  the  purple  of  the  king,  and  the  fine  linen  of  the  priestf — the  kingdom 
of  priests  or  royal  priesthood. |  They  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  they 
were  amply  furnished  with  all  spiritual  blessings  :  "  enriched,"  as  The- 
ophylact  describes  it,  "  with  all  knowledge  and  wisdom,  and  witii  the 
precious  oracles  of  God."     They  were  the  vineyard  which  the  Lord  had 


*  Augustine  (Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxlvii.  14) :  0  Dominc,  gratias  mLsericordise  tuae  ; 
voluisti  mori,  ut  aliquis  ab  inferis  surgeret,  et  ipse  aliquis  non  quicumqiie,  sed 
Veritas  surrcxit  ab  infei'is.  In  Plato's  legend  of  the  revenant,  alluded  to  already 
(p.  38-3,  note),  there  is  a  remarkable  witness  for  this  craving  in  the  mind  of  man, 
that  he  who  gives  assurance  of  the  reality  of  the  things  after  death  should  have 
himself  returned  from  the  world  of  spirits, — a  longing  that  for  us  has  found  its 
satisfliction  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  The  same  reappears  in  that,  which  how- 
ever is  plainly  but  an  imitation  of  Plato's  narrative,  the  story  of  Thespesius  in 
Plutarch's  essay,  De  sera  Nitmi/iis  vindicta. 

f  Augustine  (Qwccsi.  Evang,  1.  3,  qu.  38):  In  Divite  intelligantur  superbi  Ju- 
dseorura,  ignorantes  Dei  justitiam,  et  suam  volentes  constituere  .  .  .  Epulatio  splen- 
dida,  jactantia  legis  est,  in  qud,  gloriabantur  plus  ad  pompam  rclationis  abutentes 
e&.,  qucim  ad  necessitatem  salutis  utentes.  Compare  Gregory  the  Great  {Horn.  40 
in  Evang. :  and  Moral.,  1.  25,  c.  13)  and  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Annott.  in  Luc.) : 
Dives  iste  Judaicum  populum  designat,  qui  cultiim  vitfe  exterius  habuit,  et  ac- 
ceptje  legis  deliciis  usus  est  ad  nitorem,  non  ad  utilitatem.  Theophylact ;  Tlop(t>v- 
pav  zeal  fivffaov  iyeSfSvTo,  PacriXeiav  ex'"''  i^°-^  Upuicrwrjv.  He  refers  the  faring  sumptu- 
ously every  day  to  the  daily  sacrifice.  In  modern  times  Lomeier  has  wrought  out 
this  view  at  length,  Obss.  Analijtico-Didact.  ad  Lncc.  xvi.,  p.  91,  seq.  See  Von 
Mbyer's  Bldltcr  fiir  Iwhere  Wahrcit,  v.  6,  p.  88,  for  an  exposition  not  historically 
the  same,  but  agreeing  with  the  spirit  of  this  one.  It  is  in  this  sense  also  that 
Swalenborg  understands  the  parable. 

X  Bao-iAeiov  Uoa.TiVfji.a,  Exod.  xix.  6 ;  compare  1  Pet.  ii.  9. 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  387 

planted,  and  of  which  he  could  say,  "  What  could  have  been  done  more 
to  my  vineyard,  that  I  have  not  done  in  it?"  (Isai.  v.  2,  4.)  They  were 
the  people  whom  he  had  made  to  ride  on  the  high  places  of  the  earth, 
and  to  whom  pertained  "  the  adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  covenants, 
and  the  giving  of  the  law,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises." 
But  all  these  things  were  given  them,  not  that  they  might  make  their 
boast  of  them,  and  rest  there,  comparing  themselves  for  self-exaltation 
with  the  heathen  round  them,  who  were  perishing  without  the  know- 
ledge of  God,  but  that  they  might  spread  around  them  the  true  faith  and 
knowledge  of  God.  Yet  they  did  not  so  ;  "  Behold,"  said  St.  Paul,  '■  thou 
art  called  a  Jew,  and  restest  in  the  law,  and  makest  thy  boast  of  God, 
and  knowest  his  will,  and  approvest  the  things  that  are  more  excellent, 
being  instructed  out  of  the  law,  and  art  confident  that  thou  thyself  art  a 
guide  of  the  blind,  a  light  of  them  that  are  in  darkness."  But  meanwhile, 
though  they  thus  boasted,  they  did  nothing  effectual  to  scatter  the  dark- 
ness of  the  heathen  ;  for  they  had  forsaken  their  true  position,  misunder- 
stood their  true  glory ;  and  this  talent  of  talents,  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God,  these  privileges,  and  this  election,  they  had  turned  into  a  self- 
ish thing.  For  they  counted  that  God  had  blessed  them  alone  of  all 
people,  instead  of,  as  was  the  truth,  above  all  people ;  they  stopped  the 
blessing,  of  which  they  should  have  been  the  channel,  and  through  them 
the  name  of  God  was  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles — he  was  presented 
to  the  Gentiles  under  a  false  character  and  in  an  unworthy  light.* 

Lazarus  the  beggar f  lay  at  their  gate  covered  with  sores:  at  the 
gate,  and  without  it,  for  the  Gentiles  were  "aliens  from  the  common- 
wealth of  Israel,  and  strangers  from  the  covenants  of  promise :" — -full 
of  sores,  for  their  sins  and  their  miseries  were  infinite.  These  sores  of 
the  Gentile  world  are  enumerated  by  St.  Paul,  Rom.  i.  23-32 ;  though 
the  term  will  include,  besides  the  sins,  the  penal  miseries  which  were 
consequent  on  those  sins.  But  these  sores,  these  "wounds  and  bruises 
and  putrifying  sores"  (Isai.  i.  6),  were  neither  closed,  nor  bound,  nor 
mollified  with  ointment,  so  that  the  dogs  came  and  licked  them.  Here, 
as  must  so  often  happen,  there  is  a  question  whether  this  last  circum- 
stance has  any  distinct  signification,  or  is  added  only  to  complete  the 
picture.  Are  there  indicated  here  the  slight  and  miserable  assuage- 
ments of  its  wants  and  woes, — the  wretched  medicine  for  its  hurts, 
which  the  heathen  world  derived  from  its  poets  and  philosophers  and 
legislators,  as  Lomeier  proposes  ?  or  is  it  meant  that  even  in  this  depth 


*  n.  do  Sto.  Victore:  Non  ad  caritatom  scd  ad  clationcm  doctrinam  Icgis 
habuit.  And  Gregory  {Horn.  40)  explains  the  refusal  of  the  crumbs:  Gentiles  ad 
cognitionem  legis,  superbi  Jiuhei  noii  ailniittebant. 

f  Theophylact :  n«Vrjj  ^iimv  xap^Twv  koj  irocpias. 


388  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

of  man's  misery,  nature  spake  to  him,  in  faint  and  feeble  accents,  of 
mere}'  and  love  (Acts  xiv.  17),  and  evidently  sympathized  with  man,  so 
that  he  found  comfort  in  her  sympathy  ?  But  the  other  circumstance 
has  plainly  a  meaning,  namely,  that  the  beggar  desired  to  be  fed  from 
the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the  rich  man's  table.  It  cannot,  indeed,  be 
said  tliat  the  G-entiles  directly  desired  the  satisfaction  of  their  spiritual 
hunger  from  the  Jews,  for  we  know  this,  from  one  cause  or  other,  was 
not  in  a  Very  great  degree  the  case ;  though  indeed  the  spread  of  Juda- 
ism, and  the  inclination  which  existed  to  embrace  it,  is  more  than  once 
noted  by  the  Roman  writers  in  the  times  of  the  first  emperors.*  But 
the  yearning  of  their  souls  after  something  better  and  truer  than  aught 
which  they  possessed,  was,  in  fact,  a  yearning  after  that  which  the  Jew 
did  possess,  and  which,  had  he  been  faithful  to  his  privileges  and  his  po- 
sition, he  would  certainly  have  imparted.  Christ  was  "  the  Desire  of  all 
nations ;"  every  yearning  after  deliverance  from  the  bondage  of  sin  and 
corruption,  which  found  utterance  in  the  heart  of  any  heathen,  was  in 
truth  a  yearning  after  him ;  so  that  implicitly  and  unconsciously  the 
heathen  was  desiring  to  be  fed  from  the  Jews'  table,  desiring  from  thence 
an  alleviation  of  his  wants,  but  desiring  it  in  vain. 

The  dying  of  Lazarus,  and  his  reception  into  Abraham's  bosom,  will 
find  their  answer  in  the  abolition  of  that  economy  under  which  the  Gen- 
tile was  an  outcast  from  the  covenant,  and  in  his  subsequent  entrance 
into  all  the  immunities  and  consolations  of  the  kingdom  of  God  ; — "which 
in  time  past  were  not  a  people,  but  are  now  the  people  of  God,  which 
had  not  obtained  mercy,  but  now  have  obtained  mercy."  (1  Pet.  i.  10; 
Ephes.  ii.  1 1-13.)  But  Dives  dies  also, — the  Jewish  economj'^  also  comes 
to  an  end, — and  now  Dives  is  in  torments, — "in  hellV  surely  not  too 
strong  a  phrase  to  describe  the  misery  and  despair,  the  madness  and 
blindness  and  astonishment  of  heart,  which  are  the  portion  of  a  people, 
that  having  once  known  God,  fall  from  that  knowledge,  of  an  apostate 
and  God-abandoned  people.  The  fundamental  idea  of  hell  is  exclusion 
from  the  presence  of  God ;  and  this  utter  exclusion  was  the  portion  of 
that  people  upon  whom  his  wrath  came  to  the  uttermost.  Who  can 
read  the  history  of  the  latter  days  of  the  Jewish  nation,  a  history  which 
has  been  providentially  preserved  to  us  in  some  of  its  minutest  details, 
of  the  time  when  that  nation  seemed  to  realize  the  fable  of  the  scorpion 
girdled  with  fire  and  fixing  its  sting  in  its  own  body,  and  not  feel  that 
all  which  really  constitutes  hell  was  already  there  ?  Nay,  and  ever  since 
have  they  not  been  "  in  torments  V  In  proof  let  us  turn  to  that  sure 
word  of  prophecy,  which  foretells  their  doom  should  they  fall  away,  as 
they  have  fallen  away,  from  their  God ;  for  instance,  to  Lev.  xxvi.  14-39, 

♦  See  Neandfr's  History  of  the  Church,  v.  1,  p.  84  (English  transl.). 


THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS.  389 

or  Deut.  xxviii.  15-68,  or  call  to  mind  the  Lord's  words  which  speak  of 
the  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  which  shall  be  their  portion,  when 
they  see  the  despised  Gentiles  coming  from  the  east  and  the  west,  fi-om 
the  north  and  from  the  south,  and  sitting  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God 
while  they  themselves  are  thrust  out.*  (Luke  xiii.  28-30.)  But  as 
Dives  looked  for  some  consolation  from  Lazarus,  whom  before  he  des- 
pised, so  the  Jew  is  looking  for  the  assuagement  of  his  miseries  through 
some  bettering  of  his  outward  estate, — some  relaxation  of  severities  im- 
posed upon  him, — some  improvement  of  his  civil  condition, — things  which 
he  looks  for  from  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  which  if  they  gave  him, 
would  be  but  as  a  drop  of  water  on  the  tongue.  He  knows  not  that  the 
wrath  of  God  does  in  truth  constitute  his  misery;  and  so  long  as  this  is 
unremoved,  he  is  incapable  of  true  comfort.  The  alleviation  which  he 
craves  is  not  given,  it  were  in  vain  to  give  it ; — the  one  true  alleviation 
would  be  that  he  should  be  himself  received  into  the  kingdom  of  God, 
that  he  should  bewail  his  guilt,  and  look  on  him  whom  he  pierced,  and 
mourn  because  of  him :  then  consolations  would  abound  to  him ;  but 
without  this,  every  thing  else  is  but  as  the  drop  of  water  on  the  fiery 
tongue.  That  there  is  no  allusion  in  the  parable  to  any  future  time, 
when  the  great  gulf  of  unbelief  which  now  separates  the  Jew  from  his 
blessings  shall  be  filled  up,  makes  nothing  against  this  interpretation ; 
since  exactly  the  same  argument  might  be  applied,  and  we  know  incor- 
rectly, to  call  in  question  the  ordinary  explanation  of  the  parable  of  the 
Wicked  Husbandmen ;  nothing  is  there  said  of  the  vineyard  being 
restored  to  its  first  cultivators,  which  yet  we  know  will  one  day  be  the 
case. 

By  the  five  brethren  of  Dives  will  be  set  forth  to  us  according  to  this 
scheme  all  who  hereafter,  in  a  like  condition  and  with  like  advantages, 
are  tempted  to  the  same  abuse  of  their  spiritual  privileges.  The  Gentile 
Church  is  in  one  sense  Lazarus  brought  into  Abraham's  bosom;  but 
when  it  sins  as  the  Jewish  Church  did  before  it,  glorying  in  its  gifts,  but 
not  using  them  for  the  calling  out  of  the  spiritual  life  of  men,  contented 
to  see  in  its  very  bosom  a  population  that  are  outcast,  save  in  name,  from 
its  privileges  and  blessings,  and  to  see  beyond  its  limits  millions  of  hea- 
thens to  whom  it  has  little  or  no  care  to  impart  the  knowledge  of  Chri&t 
and  of  his  salvation, — then  in  so  far  as  it  thus  sins,  it  is  only  too  like 
the  five  brethren  of  Dives,  who  are  in  danger  of  coming  with  him,  and 
for  sins  similar  to  his,  to  this  place  of  torment.  Nor  are  we  to  imagine 
that,  before  judgment  is  executed  upon  a  Church  thus  forgetful  of  its 
high  calling,  it  will  be  roused  from  its  dream  of  security  by  any  startling 
summonses. — any  novel  signs  and  wonders. — any  new  revelation, — any 

*  Thcophylact :  ^Eu  tj7  <^Ao7i  KaraKaiovrai  tov  (p&dvov. 


390  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

Lazarus  rising  from  the  dead  and  bidding  it  to  repent.  It  has  enough 
to  remind  it  of  its  duty, — it  has  its  deposit  of  truth, — its  talent  wherewith 
it  was  bidden  to  trade  till  its  Lord's  return.  So  that  the  latter  part  of 
the  parable,  thus  contemplated,  speaks  to  us  Gentiles  in  the  very  spirit 
of  those  awful  words  which  St.  Paul  addressed  to  the  Gentile  converts  at 
Rome  :  "  Behold,  therefore,  the  goodness  and  severity  of  God  :  on  them 
which  fell  severity,  but  towards  thee  goodness,  if  thou  continue  in  his 
goodness;  otherwise  thou  also  shalt  be  cut  off."     (Rom.  xi.  22.) 


XXVII. 
UNPROFITABLE    SERVANTS. 

Luke  xvii.  7-10. 

Some  interpreters  find  a  connection  between  this  parable  and  the  dis- 
course whicl*  precedes  it,  while  others  affirm  that  no  such  can  be  traced, 
— that  the  parable  must  be  explained  without  any  reference  to  the  say- 
ing concerning  faith  which  goes  immediately  before.  Theophylact  sup- 
poses tliis  to  be  the  link  between  the  parable  and  the  preceding  verse: 
the  Lord  had  there  declared  the  great  things  which  a  living  faith  would 
enable  his  disciples  to  perform — how  they  should  remove  mountains; 
but  then,  lest  these  great  things  which  were  in  the  power  of  their  faith 
should  cause  them  to  fall  into  a  snare  of  pride,  the  parable  was  spoken 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  them  humble.*  Augustine  confesses  the  dif- 
ficulty of  tracing  the  connection,  and  has  a  very  singular  explanation  of 
the  whole  parable,  which  I  must  be  content  to  refer  to,t  as  it  would  take 
up  considerable  space  to  do  it  justice.  Olshausen  gives  this  explanation  : 
The  apcstles  by  that  account  which  went  before  of  the  hindrances  they 
would  meet  in  their  work  (ver.  1,  2),  of  the  hard  duties,  hard  as  they  then 
'Seemed  to  them,  which  were  required  of  them  (ver.  3,  4).  had  a  longing 
awakened  in  them  after  a  speedier  reward.  The  Lord  therefore  would 
set  before  them  their  true  relation  to  him ;  that  their  work,  difficult  or 
not,  welcome  or  otherwise,  must  be  done — that  they  were  not  their  own, 
but  hi.s,  and  to  labor  for  him.  If  they  found  their  labor  a  dcliglit,  well ; 
but  if  not,  still  it  was  to  be  done.  Neither  were  they  to  look  for  their 
reward  and  release  from  toil  at  once,:}:  but  rather  to  take  example  of  the 

*  So  Cajetan:  Petieraiit  Apostoli  ailjungi  sibi  doniim  confidentiiu,  (luod  et  eis 
collatum  intellig;itur.  Et  (luoiiiam  ctiaiii  suiioibia  bonis  opuribiis  iii.sidiatur  ut 
porcant.  idco  Jesus  adjungit  parabolam  conscrvativain  eoruin  in  veri  rcco^'nitione 
.suimL't,  ne  extollantur. 

t  Qiicrsl.  Evan<j.,  1.  2,  c.  39.  Maldonatus,  wlio  denies  tliat  tliere  is  any  con- 
nection, tiiinks  Augustine's  very  forced  and  unnatural. 

\  Eudfus  (ver.  7). 


392  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS. 

Bervant,  who  though  he  had  been  strenuously  laboring  all  the  day  in  the 
field,  '■•  'ploughing  or  feeding  cattle"  yet  not  the  less  when  he  returned 
home  had  to  resume  his  labors  in  the  house  also.  Such  is  his  explana- 
tion, and  no  doubt  he  here  asserts  an  important  truth,  and  one  found  in 
the  parable  ;  but  to  the  connection,  as  he  traces  it,  there  is  this  objection, 
that  the  request,  "  Lord,  increase  our  faith,"  does  not  seem  to  convey  any 
such  meaning  as  he  finds  in  it;  there  is  no  appearance  as  if  those  who 
made  it  were  desirous  of  escaping  a  dispensation  committed  to  them,  or 
snatching  prematurely  at  a  reward.  Other  expositors  have  neglected  to 
seek  any  immediate  connection  between  the  parable  and  the  context  in 
which  it  is  found,  afiirming  that  it  teaches  generally  how  God  is  debtor 
to  no  man,  that  all  we  can  do  is  of  duty,  nothing  of  merit,  and  that  in  all 
our  work  we  must  retain  the  acknowledgment  of  this,  and  carefully  guard 
against  all  vainglory  and  elation  of  heart ;  how  rather  we  must  be  deeply 
humbled  before  God  out  of  the  thought  that,  did  we  do  all,  we  should 
only  do  that  we  were  bound  to ;  and  how  then  must  it  be,*when  we  fall 
so  infinitely  short  of  that  all  ? 

But  altogether  difterent  from  any  of  these  interpretations  is  that  first 
formally  proposed,  if  I  mistake  not,  by  Grotius,  and  which  Venema* 
has  taken  up  and  strengthed  with  additional  arguments  and  illustra- 
tions. The  parable,  they  say,  is  not  meant  to  represent  at  all  tlie  stand- 
ing of  the  faithful  under  the  new  covenant,  "  the  perfect  law  of  liberty," 
but  the  merely  servile  standing  of  the  Jew  under  the  old,  and  it  grew 
in  this  manner  out  of  the  discourse  preceding.  The  disciples  had 
asked  for  inerea.se  of  faith.  The  Lord  in  answer  would  teach  them  the 
necessity  and  transcendent  value  of  that  gift  for  which  they  were  ask- 
ing, would  magnify  its  value,  showing  them  how  all  outward  works 
done  without  this  living  principle  of  free  and  joyful  obedience,  such  as 
for  the  most  part  the  men  of  their  own  nation  were  content  with,  were 
merely  servile,  and  were  justly  recompensed  with  a  merely  servile  re- 
ward,— that  in  those  God  could  take  no  pleasure,  and  for  them  counted 
that  he  owed  no  thanks  ;  the  servants  who  did  them  were  after  all  un- 
profitable and  of  no  account  in  his  sight. 

The  arguments  of  Grotius  and  Venema  are  mainly  these.  They 
object  to  the  common  interpretation,  that  it  sets  forth  in  a  wrong  aspect 
the  relations  which  exist  between  Christ  and  his  people.  Tliey  ask.  Is 
it  likely  that  the  gracious  Lord  who  in  another  place  said,  "  Henceforth 
I  call  you  not  servants,  .  .  .  but  I  have  called  you  friends,"  would  here 
wish  to  bring  forward  in  so  strong  a  light  the  service  done  to  him  as  one 
merely  servile,  and  for  which  he  would  render  them  no  thanks?  would 
he,  who  ever  sought  to  lead  his  disciples  into  the  recognition  of  their 

*  Diss.  Sac,  p.  262.  seq. 


UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS.  393 

filial  relation  to  God,  that  they  had  received  not  the  spirit  of  bondage 
but  of  adoption,  here  throw  them  back  so  strongly  on  their  servile  rela- 
tion ?  It  was  not,  they  say,  in  this  spirit  that  he  spake  those  words, 
•'  Blessed  are  those  servants,  whom  the  lord  when  he  comcth  shall  tiad 
watching  :  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  th-ot  he  sliall  gird  himsdf.  and  make 
them  sit  down  to  meat,  and  will  come  forth  and  serve  them."  (Luke 
xii.  37.)  On  the  other  hand  the  parable  does,  they  affirm,  exactly  .set 
forth  the  relation  of  the  Jews,  at  least  of  the  greater  ])art  of  them,  to 
Grod.  They  were  hired*  to  do  a  certain  work,  which  if  they  did,  they 
were,  like  servants,  free  from  stripes  :  they  had  too  their  stipend — they 
ate  and  drank — they  received  their  earthly  reward.  But  going  no  fur- 
ther than  this  bare  fulfilling  of  the  things  expressly  enjoined*  them,  and 
fulfilling  them  without  love,  without  zeal,  without  the  filial  spirit  of  faith, 
contented  to  stop  short  when  they  had  just  done  so  much  as  would  ena- 
able  them,  as  they  hoped,  to  escape  punishment,  going  through  their 
work  in  this  temper,  they  were  "  tmjrrojitable  servan/s,"  in  whom  the 
Lord  could  take  no  pleasure,  and  who  could  look  for  no  further  marks 
of  favor  at  his  hands. f 


*  Exactly  the  same  stress  which  they  would  here  lay  on  ra  SiaTax^evTa  is  laid 
by  Origon  {In  Rom.,  1.  3),  altliough  his  puriiose.  as  will  be  seen,  is  different: 
Donee  quis  hoc  facit  tantum  quod  debet,  i.  c,  ca  quaj  prtccepta  sunt,  Inutilis 
servus  est.  {Laic.  xvii.  10.)  Si  autem  addas  aliquid  prajceptis,  tunc  non  jam 
inutilis  servus  eris,  sed  dicetur  ad  to :  Euge  serve  bone  ct  fidelis.  (Matt.  xxv.  21.) 
St.  Bernard  too  {In  Cant.,  Serm.  11,  c.  2),  without  indeed  making  Origen's  danger- 
ous use  of  the  passage,  and  lowering  the  standard  of  j)iety  for  tlie  ninety-nine,  in 
the  hope  of  exalting  it  for  the  one,  has  implicitly  the  same  explanation  of  the 
passage  as  that  mentioned  in  the  text.  Exi)ounding  Cant.  i.  2,  he  has  occasion  to 
speak  of  a  service,  rendered  indeed,  but  without  joy  and  alacrity  and  delight,  and 
ends  thus:  Denique  in  Evangclio  qui  hoc  solium,  quod  facere  debet,  facit  servus 
inutilis  reputiitur.  Mandata  forsan  utcumque  adimpleo :  sed  aniraa  mea  sicut  terra 
sine  aqua,  in  illis.  Ut  igitur  holocaustum  meum  pingue  fiat,  osculetur  me,  quaeso, 
osculo  oris  sui. 

t  Grotius  (in  loc.)  is  especially  rich  in  materials  in  support  of  this  interpreta- 
tion of  the  j)arable.  From  Maimonidcs  he  quotes  a  Jewish  proveb.  Ei  datur  pras- 
mium  (111!  iiuid  injussus  iiicit:  and  from  Chrysostom  {In  Rom.  \\\\.)  a  passage 
contrasting  tlie  obedience  of  the  Jew  and  the  Christian:  KaKtivoi  Se  <p6^<i>  rifiupias 
TravTO  iTTparrov  a.y6fj.cvoi,  01  Se  irvevfiartKol  4iri^uixiq,  kuI  Trd^y.  koI  toDto  SriXudcrt  ry  kuI 
inr(p$aiyeiv  to  iTrnayfx.ara.  We  might  conqjare.  especially  with  that  Jewish  pro- 
verb, one  of  the  Similitudes  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias  (1.  3,  sini.  5),  which  is 
briefly  this:  A  householder  i>lant<'d  a  vineyard,  and  going  from  home,  left  his 
servant  the  task  of  tying  the  vines  to  their  supports,  and  no  more;  but  the  .servant 
having  (niishod  this  task,  thought  it  would  profit  the  vineyard,  if  also  lie  were  to. 
weed  it  and  dig  it  which  he  did;  and  tlie  master  found  it  in  high  order  and  beauty 
on  his  retuni.  Well  ideased  with  his  servant  becau,se  he  had  tlms  done  more  than 
was  enjoined  him,  lu;  determined  to  give  him  the;  adoption  of  sonsliip  and  to  mako 
him  fellow-heir  with  his  own  son.     It  is  true  that  Hernias  makes  an  a])plieation  of 


394  UNPROFITABLE  SERYANTS. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  is  something  attractive  in  this  ex- 
position,* or  that  it  is  worthy  of  respectful  consideration  ;  but  yet  it 
might  be  fairly  replied  in  this  way  to  the  arguments  of  those  that  up- 
hold it.  The  present  parable  need  not  be  opposed  to,  but  rather  should 
be  balanced  with,  that  other  saying  of  the  Lord's  (Luke  xii.  37)  quoted 
above, — should  be  considered  as  supplying  the  counterweight  of  all  such 
declarations.  This  is  the  way  God  might  deal ;  for  we  may  observe,  it 
is  not  said  that  this  is  the  way  he  will  deal,  since  rather  that  other  is 
the  manner  in  which  he  will  actually  bear  himfeelf  towards  his  faithful 
servants  ; — the  one  relation  is  that  which  according  to  the  strictness  of 
justice  he  might  assume,  the  other  is  that  which  according  to  the  riches 
of  his  grace  he  will  assume.  We,  to  keep  us  humble,  are  evermore  to 
acknowledge  that  upon  that  footing  he  might  put  our  relation  to  him, 
having,  at  the  same  time  this  assurance,  that  so  long  as  we  put  it  upon 
that  footing,  he  will  not ;  for  so  long,  we  are  capable  of  receiving  his 
favors  without  being  corrupted  by  them.  It  is  only  to  the  humble,  to 
the  self-abased  before  God,  that  he  can  give  grace,  for  where  this  humil- 
ity is  not,  it  is  certain  that,  as  the  unclean  vessel  will  altogether  taint 
the  wine  poured  into  it,  so  the  gifts  of  God  will  be  perverted  to  spiritual 
wickedness,  more  dangerous  and  more  deadly  than  the  natural  corrup- 
tions of  man's  heart.  And  although,  doubtless,  the  relation  of  the 
Christian  to  his  Lord  is  set  forth  here  under  somewhat  a  severer!  aspect 
than  is  usual  under  the  New  Covenant,  yet  the  experience  of  every 
heart  will  bear  witness  how  needful  it  is  that  this  side  of  the  truth,  as 

the  similitude  different  from  what  one  would  expect,  and  not  bearing  upon  our 
parable,  but  yet  the  passage  is  in  itself  remarkable.  Seneca  {De  Bcncf.,  1.  3,  c. 
18-28)  treats  an  interesting  question  which  bears  on  the  present  object :  An  bene- 
ficinm  dare  douiino  servus  possit  1  which  he  answers  in  the  affirmative :  Quamdiu 
pnestatur  quod  &.  servis  exigi  solet  [ra  5ioTax'^«»'Ta]  ministerium  est,  ubi  plus 
quiini  quod  servo  necesse  est,  beneflcium :  ubi  in  affectum  amici  transit,  desinit 
vocari  ministerium.  .  .  .  Quicquid  est  quod  servilis  officii  forniulara  excedit,  quod 
non  ex  impcrio  sed  et  voluntate  pr^estatur,  beneficium  est.  He  has  much  more  on 
the  same  subject. 

*  It  is  "Wetstein's  also:  Sunt  nimirum  servi  qui  sei'viunt  serviliter.  hoc  est, 
qui  nil  nisi  jussi  faciunt:  alii  serviunt  liberaliter,  ut  filii  qui,  non  exspectato  man- 
dato,  ex  generosa,  et  nobili  indole,  sponte  et  injussi  ea  faciunt,  qua3  utilia  ct  Domino 
placitura  crcdunt.  Illos  Christus  hie  perstringit  et  vituperat  eo  fine  ut  discipulos 
ad  altiorem  gradum  perducat. 

t  At  the  same  time,  our  translation  makes  it  wear  even  a  severer  aspect  than  is 
need,  while  it  has  rendered  ex*'  X"P"'  *^-  "''•  ^-  >  '"Doth  he  thank  that  servant?"  thus 
seeming  to  cut  off"  anj'  recognition  at  all  of  the  servant's  work.  It  would  be  better. 
"  Doth  he  count  himself  especially  beholden  to  that  servant  1"  as  Weisse  gives  it, 
Weiss  er  dem  Knecht  besondern  Dank  1  So  Heb.  xii.  28,  ex'^M*"  X"P"'-  which 
should  be  translated,  "Let  us  have  the  thankfulness."  See  Tittman's  (Syrt07iyms, 
s.  V.  axpi^oi. 


UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS.  395 

well  as  the  other,  should  be  set  out, — that  in  hours  when  we  are  tempted 
to  draw  back,  to  shun  and  to  evade  our  tasks,  we  should  then  feel  that  a 
necessity  is  laid  upon  us, — that  indeed  while  we  do  them  willingly,  we 
do  them  also  the  most  acceptably :  yet  whether  willingly  or  nut,  they 
must  be  done. — that  we  are  servants  who  are  not  to  question  our  Mas- 
ter's will,  but  to  do  it.  Good  for  us  it  is  that  we  should  have  the  check 
of  considerations  like  these  upon  us  in  such  moments,  and  should  thus 
be  kept  in  the  way  of  duty,  till  the  time  of  a  more  joyful  and  childlike 
obedience  again  comes  round.  This  fear  does  not  exclude  love,  but  is 
its  true  guardian :  they  mutually  uphold  and  support  one  another  ;*  for 
our  hearts,  while  yet  they  are  not  made  perfect  in  love,  are  not  such 
that  they  can  be  presented  with  motives  drawn  only  from  gratitude  and 
love.  These  indeed,  must  ever  be  the  chief  and  prominent  motive  to 
obedience  (Rom.  xii.  1),  and  so  long  as  they  prove  sufficient,  the  others 
will  not  appear  ;  but  it  is  well  for  us  tliat  behind  these,  there  should  be 
other  sterner  and  severer  summonses  to  duty,  ready  to  come  forward  and 
make  themselves  felt,  when  our  evil  and  our  corruption  causes  them  to 
be  needed.  Well  for  us,  too,  is  it,  that  while  the  Lord  is  pleased  gra- 
ciou.sly  to  accept  our  work  and  to  reward  it,  we  should  ever  be  reminded 
that  it  is  an  act  of  his  free  grace,  of  his  unmerited  mercy,  by  which  our 
relation  to  him  has  been  put  upon  this  footing.  For  there  is  also 
another  footing  (that  of  the  parable)  upon  which  it  might  have  been  put, 
— yea,  upon  which,  though  he  does  not,  yet  we  must  evermore  put  it,  so 
far  at  least  as  is  needful  for  the  subduing  every  motion  of  pride  and 
A\iinglory — every  temptation  to  bring  in  God  as  our  debtor  because  of 
our  work. — which,  inconceivable  as  it  must  appear  when  we  calmly  con- 
template the  matter,  is  yet  what  men  are  evermore  on  the  point  of  doing.f 
A  more  real  difficulty  in  the  parable,  as  it  appears  to  me,  is  this, 
that  of  the  first  part  of  it  (ver.  7,  8)  the  purpose  seems,  to  commend  pa- 
tience in  the  Lord's  work, — that  we  do  not  desire  to  be  dismissed  before 
the  time  from  our  labors,  or  snatch  too  early  at  the  reward ;  but  rather 
take  example  from  the  hind,  who  only  looks  to  rest  and  refresh  himself, 
when  his  master  has  no  further  need  of  his  service :  that,  in  the  words 


*  GueiTicus  (Bernardi  O-per.^  v.  2,  p.  1028,  ed.  Bencd.) :  Neque  enim  tiraor  iste 
quern  amor  castum  facit,  gaudiura  tollit,  sed  custodit ;  non  destruit,  sed  instruit ; 
noil  inamaricat,  sed  condit;  ut  tant6  sit  durabilius,  quant6  modestius,  tant6  verius, 
quanto  .severius,  tantd  dulcius,  quanti  sanctius. 

t  Ambrose  {Exp.  in  Laic,  1.  8,  c.  32) :  Agno.scc  esse  te  sorvum  pluriniis  obse- 
quiis  defeneratum.  Non  te  pra'feras,  quia  lilius  Dei  diceris  :  agnoscenda  gratia, 
sed  non  ignoranda  natura.  Neque  te  jactes  si  bene  servisti.  quod  facere  dobuisti. 
Obsc(initur  sol.  obtenii)erat  luna,  serviuiit  angeli.  .  .  .  Et  nos  ergo  non  Ji  nobis 
laudcm  exigamus  nee  j)ra;rii)ianius  judicium  Dei  ct  prajvcniamus  sentcntiam  judi- 
cis:  sed  suo  tcmpori,  suojudici  reservemus. 


396  UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS. 

of  the  son  of  Sirach  (xi.  20)  we  learn  to  wax  old  in  our  work,  and  so 
long  as  we  are  here,  see  in  one  task  but  a  stepping-stone  to  another. 
Such  appears  the  lesson  of  the  first  part  of  the  parable, — that  we  do  not, 
after  we  have  made  some  exertion,  smaller  or  greater,  account  that  we 
have  a  claim  to  be  exempted  henceforth  from  strenuous  toil ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  ever,  as  we  have  surmounted  one  hill  of  labor,  perceive  a  new 
one  rising  above  it,  and  gird  ourselves  for  the  surmounting  of  that  also. 
But  in  the  second  part  (ver.  9,  10)  it  is  no  longer  this  patient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing,  but  humility,  that  is  enjoined,  the  confession  that  we 
are  not  doing  Grod  a  favor  in  serving  him,  but  that  all  we  can  do  is  of 
merest  duty, — that  our  service  at  best  is  poor  and  of  little  value.  I  sup- 
pose, howevei",  the  solution  is,  that  impatience  under  deferred  reward, 
with  the  desire  to  be  released  from  labor,  springs  from  over-estimation 
of  our  work  ;  while  he  who  feels  that  all  which  he  has  yet  done  is  little, 
that  it  is  all  poor  and  mean,  as  he  will  not  count  that  it  gives  him  a 
claim  henceforward  to  be  exempted  from  labor,  but  will  rather  desire 
some  new  field. of  labor  where  he  may  approve  himself  a  better  servant 
than  he  has  yet  done,  so  neither  will  he  count  that  it  gives  him  a  right 
to  consider  G-od  as  his  debtor.  The  two  wrong  states  of  mind,  springing 
from  the  same  evil  root,  are  to  be  met  by  the  same  remedy,  by  the  learn- 
ing to  know  what  our  actual  relation  to  God  is, — that  it  is  one  of  servants 
to  a  master,  and  being  such,  it  precludes  us  alike  from  all  right  of  claim- 
ing release  when  we  please,  and  so  also  from  all  right  to  extol  or  exalt 
ourselves  for  the  doing  of  that,  which  by  the  very  laws  of  our  condition 
we  are  bound  to, — which  not  to  do  were  great  guilt,  but  which  to  do  is 
no  merit. 

With  regard  to  the  actual  words  of  the  parable,  there  is  not  much  to 
remark.  All  are  aware  that  the  waiting  at  table  with  the  dress  suc- 
cinct was  a  mark  of  servitude,*  which  to  keep  in  mind  makes  more  won- 
derful the  condescension  of  the  Son  of  Grod  in  his  saying,  Luke  xii.  37, 
and  in  his  doing,  John  xiii.  4.  With  regard  to  the  confession  which  he 
puts  into  the  mouths  of  his  disciples,t  "  When  ye  shall  have  done  all 
those  things  which  are  commanded  you,  *^2/jt  We  are  un])rojitahle  ser- 
vants ;"  we  may  truly  observe,  as  many  have  observed  before,  if  this  they 
are  to  say  when  they  have  done  all,  how  much  more,  and  with  how  far 
deeper  self-abasement  and  shame,  when  their  consciences  bear  them  wit- 

*  Venema  quotes  from  Philo  (Z?e  Vita  Contempl.)  a  passage  concerning  the 
Egyptian  Therapeutas,  which  gives  remarkable  evidence  of  this :  "A^axrroi  8e  /cai 
Ko^ififvoi  Toxis  xi-Tt^viffKovs  elffiaffiv  vTn)peri)(rovTes,  eveKa  rod  firiSfv  eiSa)\oy  iin<pepe(r^(u 
SovXoTTpeTTovs  axvi^ctros  ils  tovto  rb  avfiirSaiov. 

t  Autiustine:  Contra  pestem  vansr,  gloriie  diligentissimfe  militans. 

X  Bengel :  Miser  est  quem  Dominus  servuni  inutilem  appellat  (Matt.  xxv.  30), 
beatus  qui  se.  ipse. 


UNPROFITABLE  SERVANTS.  397 

ness.  as  his  conscience  must  bear  witness  to  every  man,  that  so  far  from 
having  done  all  that  was  commanded,  they  have  in  innumerable  things 
grievously  failed  and  come  short  of  their  duty,  of  what  they  might  and 
ought  to  have  done.*  , 

*  Cajotan  :  Quod  igitur  dicitur,  Quum  feceritis  omnia,  non  ideo  dicitur,  quod 
facturi  essent  omnia :  .sed  quod  .si  otiara  faciunt  omnia,  sed  quod  quum  nierita 
habuurint  facicntium  omnia  prajccpta,  recognoscant  se  servos  inutiles ;  ut  h  fortiori 
se  recognoscant  minus  quim  inutiles,  hoc  est  debitores  et  reos  multorum,  quae 
debebant  sen  debent  facere. — Our  Church  in  her  14tli  Article  has  used  this  parable 
against  the  Romish  doctrine  of  works  of  supererogation.  Cf.  Gerhard's  Loc 
TheoU.,  loc.  18,  c.  8,  ^  91 


XXVIII. 
THE   UNJUST    JUDGE. 

Luke  xviii.  1-8. 

This  parable  is  addressed  to  the  disciples,  and  stands,  as  Theophylact 
and  others  have  noted,  in  closest  relation  with  what  has  gone  immediately 
before,  with  the  description  of  the  sufferings  and  distress  of  the  last 
times,  when  even  the  disciples  "  shall  desire  to  see  one  of  the  days  of  the 
Son  of  man,  and  shall  not  see  it."  (xvii.  22.)  Then  will  be,  according 
to  the  deeply  significant  image  in  use  among  the  Jews,  and  sanctioned 
by  our  Lord,  the  birth-pangs  of  the  new  creation,*  and  the  distresses  of 
that  time  are  the  motive  here  set  forth  for  prayer, — distresses  which 
shall  always  be  felt,  but  then  at  the  last  felt  more  intensely  than  ever. 
"  He  sjjake  a  parable  unto  them^  that  men  ought  always  to  inay^'^  that 
men  must  needs  pray  always,  if  they  would  escape  the  things  coming  on 
the  earth — that  such  was  the  only  condition  of  their  escaping.  It  is  not 
so  much  the  duty  or  suitableness,  as  the  absolute  necessity,  of  instan* 
persevering  prayer  that  is  here  declared.!     Nor  is  this  all  that  the  par- 

*  'Apx'?  oiVivuiv,  Matt.  xxiv.  8.  Compare  John  xvi.  21,  and  Rom.  viii.  22,  TrScra 
71  Kriais  trvifuSivei. 

f  Compare  two  remarkable  sermons  by  Clirysostom  {Dc  Prccatione),  which 
turn  a  good  deal  on  this  parable,  and  contain  many  remarkable  things  on  the 
extreme  needfulness  of  prayer ;  he  calls  it  the  medicine  expelling  spiritual  sick- 
nesses— the  foundation  of  the  spiritual  building — that  to  the  soul  which  the  nerves 
are  to  the  body.  He  likens  the  man  without  prayer  to  the  fish  out  of  water  and 
gasping  for  life — to  a  city  without  walls,  and  exposed  to  all  assaults ;  but  from  him 
that  is  armed  with  prayer  the  tempter  starts  back,  as  midnight  robbers  start  back 
when  they  see  a  sword  suspended  over  a  soldier's  bed. — Some  have  questioned 
whether  these  sermons  are  Chrysostom's,  and  the  Benedictine  editors  (v.  2,  p.  778) 
speak  doubtfully,  the  main  argument  against  them  being,  that  Sennacherib  is 
twice  spoken  of  in  them  as  king  of  the  Persians,  an  error  it  is  thought  which 
Chrysostom  could  scarcely  have  committed.  But  if  it  is  to  be  considered  an  error, 
it  is  quite  or  nearly  as  difficult  to  imagine  any  one  else,  who  could  write  these 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE.  399 

ble  teaches,  but  it  gives  us  further  some  very  deep  insight  into  the  nature 
and  essence  of  prayer. 

In  this  precept,  to  pray  always*  (with  which  we  may  compare 
Ephes.  vi.  18;  1  Thess.  v.  17),  there  is  nothing  of  exaggeration,  nothing 
commanded  which  may  not  be  fulfilled,  when  we  understand  of  prayer 
as  the  continual  desire  of  the  soul  after  God;  having  indeed  its  times 
of  intensity,  seasons  of  an  intenser  concentration  of  the  spiritual  life,  but 
not  being  confined  to  those  times ;  since  the  whole  life  of  the  faithful 
should  be,  in  Origen's  beautiful  words,  one  great  connected  prayer,! — 
or,  as  St.  Basil  expresses  it.  prayer  should  be  the  salt  which  is  to  salt 
every  thing  besides.  "  That  soul,"  says  Donne,  "  that  is  accustomed  to 
direct  herself  to  God  upon  every  occasion,  that  as  a  flower  at  sun-rising, 
conceives  a  sense  of  God  in  every  beam  of  his,  and  spreads  and  dilates 
itself  towards  him,  in  a  thankfulness,  in  every  small  blessing  that  he 
sheds  upon  her,  .  .  .  that  soul  who,  whatsoever  string  be  stricken  in  her, 
base  or  treble,  her  high  or  her  low  estate,  is  ever  turned  towards  God, 
that  soul  prays  sometimes  when  it  does  not  know  that  it  prays. "J  Many 
and  most  worthy  to  be  repeated  are  Augustine's  sayings  on  this  matter, 
drawn  as  they  are  from  the  depths  of  his  own  Christian  life.  Thus,  in 
one  place.  ■'  It  was  not  for  notliing  that  the  apostle  said,  'Pray  without 
ceasing.'  Can  we,  indeed,  without  ceasing  bend  the  knee,  bow  the  body, 
or  lift  up  the  hands,  that  he  should  say,  '  Pray  without  ceasing?'  There 
is  another  interior  prayer  without  intermission,  and  that  is  the  longing 
of  thy  heart.  Whatever  else  thou  mayest  be  doing,  if  thou  longest  after 
that  Sabbath  of  God.  thou  dost  not  intermit  to  pray.  If  thou  wishest 
not  to  intermit  to  pray,  see  that  thou  do  not  intermit  to  desire — thy  con- 
tinual desire  is  thy  continual  voice.  Thou  wilt  be  silent,  if  thou  leave 
off  to  love,  for  thej  were  silent  of  whom  it  is  written,  '  Because  iniquity 
shall  abound,  the  love  of  many  shall  wax  cold."  The  coldness  of  love  is 
the  silence  of  the  heart — the  fervency  of  love  is  the  cry  of  ^he  heart."^ 

sermons  failing  into  it.  But  it  .should  be  called  a  mistake  ;  the  names  of  the  three 
great  Eastern  monarchies  were  of  old  continually  confounded,  and  this  where  it  is 
impossible  that  ignorance  could  have  been  the  cause.  Thus  Darius  is  called  (Ezra 
vi.  22)  king  of  A.ssyria  and  Artaxer.xes  (Neh.  xiii.  6)  king  of  Babylon ;  the  ex- 
planation being,  that  the  three  first  empires,  as  we  call  them,  were  considered  not 
as  dit^'erent,  but  as  one  and  the  same  empire,  continued  under  different  dynasties. 
D'llerbclut  {Bibl.  Orient.,  s.  v.  Nouh)  mentions  something  of  the  sort  as  being  the 
view  of  the  modern  East:  II  faut  remarqiier  ici.  que  les  Orientaux  comi)rennent 
dans  les  dynasties  des  anciens  Rois  de  Perse,  les  Assyriens,  les  Babylonicns,  ct  les 
Medes. 

*  Tirinus  sets  forth  well  this  "alvays:"  Non  obstante  tajdio,  metu,  tentatione. 

X  Sermon  XI.     On  the  Purification. 

^  Enarr.  in  Ps.  xxxvii.  10:  Ipsum  desidcrium  tuum,  oratio  tua  est,  et  si  con- 


400  THE  UNJUST  JUDGE. 

But  he  who  knew  how  easily  we  are  put  off  from  prayer,  and  under  what 
continual  temptations  to  grow  slack  in  it,  especially  if  we  find  not  at 
once  the  answer  we  expect,  warns  us  against  this  very  thing,  bidding  us 
to  pray  always,  and  '•  not  to  faint  ^''*  not  to  grow  weary,  since  in  due  sea- 
son we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not ;  and  in  proof  of  this  he  brings  forward- 
the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Judge,  with  whom  the  feeble  importunities  of 
the  helpless  widow  did  yet  so.  mightily  prevail,  that  they  at  length  ex- 
torted from  him  the  boon  which  at  first  he  was  determined  to  deny. 

None  but  the  Son  of  God  himself  might  have  ventured  to  use  this 
comparison.  It  had  been  overbold  on  the  lips  of  any  other.  For  as  in 
the  parable  of  the  Friend  at  Midnight  we  were  startled  with  finding  God 
compared  to  a  churlish  neighbor,  so  here  with  finding  him  likened  to  an 
unrigJiteous  judge.  Yet  we  must  not  seek  therefore  to  extenuate — as 
some  have  been  at  great  pains  to  do,  and  by  many  forced  constructions 
— his  unrighteousness  ;t  but  on  the  contrary,  the  greater  we  conceive 
that  to  have  been,  the  more  does  the  consoling  and  encouraging  truth 
which  the  Lord  would  enforce  come  out,  the  more  strong  the  argument 
for  persevering  prayer  becomes.  If  a  bad  man  will  yield  to  the  mere 
force  of  the  importunity  which  he  hatesj  how  much  more  certainly  will 
a  righteous  God  be  prevailed  on  by  the  faithful  prayer  which  he  loves.| 
The  fact  that  the  judge  is  an  unrighteous  one,  is  not  an  accident  cleav- 
ing to  the  earthly  form  under  which  the  heavenly  truth  is  set  forth,  and 
which  would  have  been  got  rid  of,  if  it  conveniently  could,  but  is  rather 
a  circumstance  deliberately  and  voluntarily  chosen  for  the  mightier  set- 
ting forth  of  that  truth.     In  two  strokes  is  described  the  Wickedness  of 

tinuum  desiderium,  continua  oratio.  .  .  .  Frigus  caritatis,  silentium  cordis  est: 
flagrantia  caritatis,  clamor  cordis  est ;  and  elsewhere :  Tota  vita  Christiani  boni 
sanctmn  desiderium  est ;  and  again :  Lingua  tua  ad  horam  laudat,  vita  tua  semper 
laudet.     Cf.  Ep.  130,  c.  8. 

*  'EK/caj/efJ- — a  word  of  not  unfrequent  use  with  St.  Paul,  but  elsewhere  in  the 
New  Testament  only  here.  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixv.  20),  warns  against  the 
danger  of  this  ^^  fainting :"  Multi  languescunt  in  oratione,  et  in  novitate  suae  con- 
versionis  ferventer  orant,  postea  languid^,  postea  frigidfe,  postea  negligenter;  quasi 
securi  iiunt.  Vigilat  hostis ;  dorrais  lu.  .  .  .  Ergo  non  deficiamus  in  oratione :  ille 
quod  concessurus  est,  etsi  differt,  non  aufert. 

f  For  a  monstrous  specimen  of  the  explanations,  of  which  the  aim  is  to  get  rid 
of  the  aSiKia  of  the  judge,  see  Theophykict  (in  loc.) — it  is  not,  however,  approved 
by  him.  It  is  also  adduced  by  Pseudo-Athanasius  (Dc  Parab.  Script.,  qu.  30),  and 
mentioned  in  Suicer.  Tlics.,  s.  v.  Kpiriis.  It  stands  parallel  with  the  extraordinary 
explanation  of  Nathan's  parable  of  the  Ewe  Lamb  (2  Sam.  xii.  1),  given  by 
Ambrose  {Apolos.  Proph.  David.,  c.  5). 

X  Augustine  {Semi.  115,  c.  1) :  Si  ergo  exaudivit  qui  oderat  quod  rogabatur, 
quomodo  exaudit  qui  ut  rogemus,  hortatur  1  and  Tertullian,  on  the  holy  violence 
of  prayer:  Ha3c  vis  Deo  est  grata.  Clemens  too  (Potter's  ed.,  p.  947):  Xaipei  6 
&ehs  TO,  Toiavra  riTTiifiivos. 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE.  401 

the  earthly  judge  :  he  ^'•feared  not  God,  yieitJier  regarded  man.''^  "  He 
feared  not  God:"  all  that  God's  law  had  said  concerning  the  judge's 
charge  and  the  unrighteous  judge's  guilt,  he  counted  light  of  (Exod. 
xxiii.  6-9;  Lev.  xix.  15;  Deut.  i.  16,  17;  2  Chron.  xix.  6,  7) ;  nor 
merely  was  there  wanting  in  him  that  higher  motive,  the  fear  of  God ; 
but  its  poor  and  miserable  substitute,  the  respect  for  the  opinion  of  the 
world,  was  equally  inoperative ;  he  had  reached  that  point  of  reckless 
wickedness,  that  he  was  alike  indiflferent  to  cither.  And  what  was  worse 
than  all,  he  dared  to  avow  this  contempt  to  himself  The  case,  there- 
fore, of  any  suppliant  was  the  more  hopeless,  especially  of  one  weak  and 
poor — weak,  so  that  she  could  not  compel  him  to  do  her  justice — and 
poor,  so  that  she  could  not  supply  him  with  any  motive,  why  for  her  sake 
be  should  brave,  it  might  be,  the  resentment  of  formidable  adversaries. 
Such,  no  doubt,  is  the  widow  of  the  parable,  one  "  that  is  a  widow  in- 
deed and  desolate."  Many  writers  have  noticed  the  exceeding  desola- 
tion of  the  state  of  widowhood  in  the  East,  and  the  obviousness  of  the 
widow,  as  one  having  none  to  help  her,  to  all  manner  of  oppressions  and 
wrongs  ;*  of  this,  the  numerous  warnings  against  such  oppression  which 
Scripture  contains,  are  sufficient  evidence.  (Exod.  xxii.  22  ;  Deut  xxiv. 
17  ;  xxvii.  19  ;  Mai.  iii.  5,  and  many  more.) 

How  fitly  then  does  this  widow  represent  the  Churchf  under  perse- 
cution, not  necessarily  under  any  particular  persecution,  but  under  that 
which  is  always  going  forward,  the  oppression  from  the  adverse  element 
in  which  she  draws  her  breath.  Nor  need  it  be  only  the  Church  at 
large  which  we  see  represented  in  her,  but  also  any  single  soul  in  con- 
flict with  the  powers  of  darkness  and  the  world.  The  adversary  then 
("  your  adversary,  the  Devil,"  1  Pet.  v.  8),  is  the  prince  of  the  darkness 
of  this  world,  the  head  of  all  the  powers  which  are  arrayed  against  the 
manifestation  of  the  kingdom  of  God  cither  in  a  single  soul,  or  in  the 
whole  world  ;  keeping  down  and,  as  far  as  it  is  allowed  him,  oppressing 
it ;  the  spiritual  Herod  that  is  ever  seeking  to  destroy  the  heavenly 
child.     But  the  elect,  they  who,  having  the  first  fruits  of  the  Spirit, 


*  For  instance,  Ward  in  his  Illustrations  of  Scripture  from  the  Manners  and 
Customs  if  the  Hindoos.    Thus,  too,  Terence  : 

Non,  ita  me  Dii  ament,  auderet  facere  haec  viduae  mulieri, 
Qu»  in  me  fecit 

t  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  cxxxi.  15) :  Omnis  anima  quaj  intelligit  se  descrtam 
omni  auxilio  nisi  solius  Dei,  vidua  ost;  .  .  .  omnis  Ecclesia  una  vidua  est,  dcserta 
in  hoc  seculo ;  si  sentit  illud,  si  novit  viduitatcm  suam :  tunc  enini  auxilium  pncsto 
est  illi ;  and  Quff:st.  Evang.,  1.  2,  qu.  45 :  Ipsa  vct6  vidua  potest  liabere  siniiiitudi- 
nem  Ecclesiie,  qu?e  desolata  videtur  donee  veniat  Doniinus,  qui  tamcn  iu  socreto 
etiam  nunc  curam  ejus  gcrit.    Cf.  Isai.  liv.  1-8. 

26 


402  THE  UNJUST  JUDGE. 

groan  within  themselves,  waiting  their  perfect  redemption,  are  here  rep- 
resented as  in  conflict  with  those  adverse  powers,  as  sufi"ering  oppression 
from  them ;  till  under  the  sense  of  that  oppression,  and  of  their  help- 
lessness to  effect  their  own  deliverance,  a  cry  is  wrung  out  from  them,  a 
cry  generally  for  aid,  but  chiefly  for  that  aid  which  will  be  final  and 
complete,  the  revelation  of  the  Son  of  man  in  his  glory, — even  the  cry 
of  the  Prophet,  "  Oh  !  that  thou  wouldst  rend  the  heavens,  that  thou 
wouldst  come  down"  (Isai.  liv.  1),  when  the  wicked  shall  fall  and  not 
rise  again,  when  the  Church  shall  be  at  rest,  being  for  ever  set  free 
from  all  the  enemies  that  are  round  about  her.  It  would  be  a  very  im- 
perfect and  slight  view  of  those  cries  for  deliverance,  which  occur  so 
often  in  the  Psalms  and  in  the  Prophets,  to  refer  them  to  any  particular 
and  transient  outward  afflictions  or  persecutions  which  the  Church  or 
any  of  its  members  are  enduring.  The  world  is  ahvays^  whether  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  whether  by  flattery  or  by  hostile  violence, 
oppressing  the  Church  ;  and  Satan  evermore  seeking  to  hinder  the  man- 
ifestation of  the  life  of  God  in  every  one  of  her  members  :  and  prayer  is 
the  cry  deprofmidis  which  the  elect  utter,  the  calling  in  of  a  mightier 
to  aid,  when  they  feel  the  danger  to  be  urgent  lest  the  enemy  should 
prevail  against  them.  And  the  words  in  which  their  need  finds  utter- 
ance, "  Avenge  tne  of  mine  adversary^''  wonderfully  express  the  relation 
in  which  we  stand  to  the  evil  of  which  we  are  conscious  as  mightily 
working  within  us  ; — that  it  is  not  our  very  self,  but  an  alien  power, 
holding  us  in  bondage, — not  the  very  "  I,"  as  St.  Paul  (Rom.  vii.)  is  so 
careful  to  assert,  for  then  redemption  would  be  impossible,  but  sin  which, 
having  introduced  itself,  is  now  seeking  to  keep  us  in  bondage.  It  is 
one  great  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  make  us  feel  this  distinctness 
between  us  and  the  evil  which  is  in  us.  The  new  creation  is  in  this  like 
the  old,  that  it  is  a  separating  of  the  light  from  the  darkness  in  the  soul 
of  man, — not  indeed,  as  yet,  an  entire  expelling  of  that  darkness,  but  a 
disengaging  of  the  light  from  it,  so  that  the  light  being  brought  into 
direct  relation  with  him  who  is  the  fountain  of  all  light,  may  act  as  an 
opposing  power  to  that  darkness.  The  good  and  the  evil  in  him  are  no 
longer  in  a  state  of  blind  contradiction,  but  of  distinct  self-conscious  op- 
position. The  renewed  man  knows  that  he  has  an  adversary,  but  for 
his  comfort,  he  knows  also  that  this  adversary  is  not  his  very  self,  but 
another,  so  that  if  he  resist  him,  he  will  flee  from  him  ;  he  knows  that 
the  power  which  that  other  exercises  over  him  is  an  usui-pation,  and 
that  it  will  be  a  righteous  thing  for  God  to  cast  out  him  who  obtained 
that  power  by  fraud  and  by  violence ;  and  knowing  this,  he  is  able  to 
cry,  with  the  widow  in  the  parable,  "  Avenge  me  of  mine  adversary ^^  or 
rather,  since  men  go  not  to  a  judge  for  vengeance,  but  for  justice, — "Do 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE.  4O3 

me  right  on,  deliver  me  from  the  oppression  of,  mine  adversary."*  And 
this  is  tlie  same  petition  that  we  make  daily,  when  we  say  "  Deliver  us 
from  evil,"  or  rather,  "  from  the  Evil  One," — from  him  who  is  the 
source  and  centre  of  all  evil.f 

For  a  time  the  judge  was  deaf  to  the  widow's  petition  ;  "  He  loould 
not  for  a  ^ohileP  When  it  was  said  above  that  the  strength  of  the  par- 
able lay  in  the  unlikeness  between  the  righteous  Judge  of  the  world, 
and  this  ungodly  earthly  judge,  it  was  not  meant  to  be  denied, — nay, 
this  too  is  part  of  the  teaching  here. — that  God  often  seems  to  tium  to 
be  acting  as  this  unjust  judge,  to  be  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the  prayer  of 
his  people.  For  even  the  elect  are  impatient  under  suffering  and  afflic- 
tion ;  they  expect  a  speedier  deliverance  than  God  is  always  willing  to 
vouchsafe  them ;  they  think  they  have  a  claim  to  be  heard  and  delivered 
more  promptly  than  God  thinks  good.J  They  cry,  and  when  they  re- 
ceive no  speedy  answer,  but  are  left,  as  it  appears  to  them,  long  in  the 
hands  of  their  enemies,  or  in  the  furnace  of  affliction,  they  are  tempted 
to  hard  thoughts  of  God,  as  though  he  took  part  with,  or  at  least  was 
contented  to  endure,  the  proud  oppressors,  while  the  cr^  of  his  afflicted 
people  was  as  nothing  in  his  ears ;  they  are  tempted  to  say  with  the 
storm-tost  disciples,  "  Carest  thou  not  that  we  perish  ?"  Now  the  para- 
ble is  in  fact  intended,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  to  meet  this  very  diffi- 
culty and  temptation,  to  which  the  faithful,  suffering  long  under  sore 
earthly  trials,  are  exposed. — We  have  in  ver.  4, 5,  recorded,  not  of  course 
what  the  judge  spoke  aloud,  scarcely  what  he  spoke  in  his  own  hearing, 
but  the  voice  of  his  heart,  as  that  heart  spake  in  the  hearing  of  God.§ 
"  He  said  vnthin  himself  Though  I  fear  not  God,  tior  regard  man.  yet 
because  this  vAdow  traubleth  me,  I  will  avenge  lier,  lest  by  her  contintial 
coming  she  iveary\\  me."     He  was  not  impelled  in  the  matter  by  any 

*  Schleusner,  s.  v.  ^/cSi»c€<u :  As.sere  me  juredicundo  ab  injuria  adversarii  mei. 
The  Vulgato :  Vindica  me  de  adversario  raeo. 

f  The  analogy  of  other  passages,  Matt.  xiii.  19,  39 ;  Eph.  vi.  16 ;  2  Thess.  iii.  3, 
would  lead  us  to  translate  in  the  Lord's  prayer,  vovijpov  not  as  a  neuter,  but 
ina.'iculinc ;  and  all  the  quotations  in  Suicer's  Thes.,  s.  v.  show  that  it  was  so  inter- 
preted in  the  Greek  Church. 

\  AuGi-STiNE,  Enarr.  2»  in  Ps.  xxxiv.  17. 

^  Beniard :  Audit  Deus  in  corde  cogitantis,  quod  nee  ipse  audit  qui  cogitat. 

II  He  uses  a  very  strong  expression  here,  uirwTrio^jj,  from  inriinriov.  the  part  of  the 
face  under  the  eyes.  Wahl :  \nrwirid^<a,  sugillo.  ut  sub  oculis  viviccs  et  maculsa 
luridaj  existant.  St.  Paul  uses  the  same  word  (1  Cor.  ix.  27)  to  describe  the  hard 
disci[)line  to  which  he  submitted  his  body.  Both  there  and  here  there  is  another 
reading,  {nroirtti(u  or  inroiri((a).  instead  of  vircoTrid^u,  which  is  not  without  some 
authorities  in  its  favor.  It  is  easy,  however,  to  see  liow.  in  the  jiresent  instance,  that 
reading  arose,  the  transcribers  thinking  this  too  strong  an  expression  fbr  any  thing 
which  the  widow  could  effect;  for  how  could  she  punisii  him  till  his  face  became 


404  THE  UNJUST  JUDGE. 

other  motive  than  a  selfish  regard  for  his  own  ease  and  quiet ;  but  lest 
these  should  be  continually  disturbed  and  broken  in  upon,  he  does  her 
right,  that  so  he  may  be  rid  of  her, — that  she  may  not  plague  nor  vex 
him  any  more,  as  it  was  the  same  motive,  though  of  course  in  a  much 
milder  form,  which  moved  the  disciples  to  ask  for  the  woman  of  Canaan, 
that  her  prayer  might  be  granted :  •'  Send  her  away,  for  she  crieth  after 
us."*  (Matt.  XV.  23.)  Indeed  this  parable  and  that  miracle  form  alto- 
gether an  interesting  parallel.     (Compare  Sirac.  xxxv.  17.) 

Between  the  parable  and  its  application. — that  is,  between  ver.  5 
and  6, — it  is  likely  that  the  Lord  paused  for  a  while,  and  then  again  re- 
sumed his  discourse :  "  Hear  what  the  unjust  judge  saith ;  and  shall 
not  God  avenge  his  own  elect?''''  In  the  first  clause  of  the  sentence  the 
emphasis  should  be  laid  on  the  word  '■^unjust ;"  in  the  other,  the  epithet 
of  goodness  which  should  complete  the  antithesis  is  omitted,  as  being 
necessarily  included  in  the  name,  God  ; — if  the  unjust  judge  acts  thus, 
shall  not  thejust  God  avenge  his  own  elect?  And  the  antithesis  is  to 
be  carried  through  all  the  members  of  the  sentence :  the  righteous  God 
is  not  only  opposed  to  the  unrighteous  judge,  but  the  elect,  the  precious 
before  God,  to  the  widow,  the  despised  among  men  ;  their  prayers  to  her 
clamor ;  and  the  days  and  nights  during  which  those  prayers  are  made, 

black  and  blue  1  But  the  use  of  so  strong  a  term  is  very  characteristic  of  the  man 
described.  Bengal :  Hyperbole  judicis  injusti  et  impatientis  personse  conveniens — 
it  is  exactly  this  exaggeration  of  language  which  selfishness  uses  in  the  things 
which  threaten  its  own  ease  and  enjojTuent ;  and  we  have  numerous  examples  of  a 
like  usage  of  words ;  thus  cK-uXKeiv,  to  vex  or  annoy,  means  properly  to  flay ;  and 
the  Spanish  ahorcar,  used  much  in  the  same  sense,  means  rightly,  to  put  to  death 
by  hanging ;  and  our  English  to  plague,  is  properly,  to  lash ;  and  these  examples 
might  easily  be  multiplied.  Beza's  translation,  obtundat,  is  happy, — that  word 
being  used  exactly  in  this  sense :  thus  Terence.  Ne  me  obtundas  hfic  de  re  siepius. 
The  assertion  made  by  Chrysostom  {De  Laz.,  Cone.  3,  c.  5),  that  it  was  pity  which 
at  length  moved  the  judge,  is  totally  without  foundation,  and  opposed  to  the  spirit 
of  the  parable. 

*  The  endeavor  to  obtain  help  or  redress  by  long-continued  crying,  and  by 
mere  force  of  importunity, — to  extort  by  these  means  a  boon  or  a  right  which  is 
expected  from  no  other  motives,  is  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  East.  Thus  it  is 
mentioned  in  Chardin's  Travels  in  Persia  (I  have  not  the  book  at  hand  to  give  the 
exact  reference),  that  the  peasants  of  the  district,  when  their  crops  have  failed,  and 
they  therefore  desire  a  remission  of  the  contributions  imposed  on  their  villages,  or 
when  they  would  appeal  against  some  tyrannical  governor,  will  assemble  before  the 
gates  of  the  Schah's  harem,  and  there  continue  howling  and  throwing  dust  in  the  air 
(Job  ii.  12;  Acts  xxii.  23),  and  not  be  silenced  or  driven  away,  till  he  has  sent  out 
and  demanded  the  cause,  and  thus  given  them  at  least  an  opportunity  of  stating 
their  griefs ;  or  sometimes  they  would  beset  him  in  the  same  manner,  as  he  passed 
through  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  thus  seek  to  gain,  and  often  succeed  in  gaining, 
their  point,  not  from  his  love  of  justice,  but  from  his  desire  to  be  freed  from 
annoyance.     See  BfiOER's  Orient.  Illusi.,  v.  2,  p.  382. 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE.  405 

to  the  comparatively  short  time  during  which  she  with  her  importunities 
beset  the  judge.  The  certainty  that  the  elect  will  be  heard  rests  not, 
however,  on  their  mighty  and  assiduous*  crying  as  its  ultimate  ground, 
but  on  their  election  of  God,  which  is.  therefore,  here  brought  especially 
into  notice,!  and  they  called  by  this  name  of  God's  elect,  rather  than  by 
any  other  of  the  many  titles  that  might  at  first  sight  have  seemed  equally 
appropriate: — ^just  as  in  Daniel  (xii.  1)  the  deliverance  of  God's  ser- 
vants is  traced  up  to  the  same  cause  ;  "  At  that  time,"  that  is,  at  the 
time  of  extremest  distress,  "  thy  people  shall  be  delivered,  every  one  that 
sJuill  be  found  xcritten  in  tJic  book.'"  Shall  he  not  avenge  them,  asks  the 
Lord,  "  though  Jie  bear  long  tvith  them  ?"  or  since  that  phrase  is  mostly 
used  in  Scripture,  to  set  forth  the  relation  of  God  to  the  sins  of  men, — 
his  patience  in  giving  them  time  and  space  for  repentance, — it  would 
avoid  perplexity  if  here  another  phrase  were  used,  as  for  instance, 
"  though  he  bear  them  long  in  hand  ?"  or  "  though  he  delay  with  them 
long  ?":{  that  is,  long,  as  men  count  length.     He  may  be  slack  in  aveng- 


*  'Hfxfpas  Kol  vvKxhs  here  =  irirrore  of  ver.  1.  Our  English  '■  cry  "  is  but  a  weak 
translation  of  the  original  0oai/.  Tertullian  translates  it  better  by  mugire  ;  it  is  a 
mighty  crying  (Gen.  iv.  10 ;  John  iii.  8,  LXX. ;  Jam.  v.  4)  which  is  here  attributed 
to  the  <?lect. 

t  Bengel  {on  Matt.  xxiv.  22) :  Ubi  supra  robur  fidcliura  ordinarium  excedit  vis 
tentationum,  electio  allegatur. 

^  The  words  /col  fiaKpo^vfiSiv  eV  avTo7s  have  created  much  difficulty.  Some 
refer  avTo7i  to  the  oppressors,  on  whom  the  vengeance  is  taken,  and  fioKpo^vfiuu  is 
then  used  in  its  commonest  sense ;  "  Shall  not  God  avenge  his  elect,  though  he 
bear  long  with  their  oppressors  1"  yet  against  this  Wolf  says  truly,  Impiorum,  de 
quibus  ultio  sit  sumcnda,  non  meminit  Christus.  But  fioKpo^vfieu  need  not  be 
necessarily,  differo  ultio7iem,  but  merely  differo.  patienter  expecto;  see  Heb.  vi.  15; 
Jam.  V.  7,  8;  Job  vii.  16;  and  especially  Sirac.  xxxv.  18  (in  the  Greek,  xxxii.  18). 
Grotius  seizes  happily  the  point  from  which  the  two  meanings  diverge ;  he  says : 
Est  in  hft.c  voce  dilationis  significatio,  qyae  ut  debitori  prodcst,  ita  gravis  est  ei  qui 
vim  patitur.  Suicer,  who  has  given  rightly  the  meaning  of  the  Lord's  words 
(quamvis  lentfe  ad  vindicandum  ipsos  procedat).  has  (s.  v.  ixaKpodv/xeu)  a  good  and 
useful  commentary  on  all  the  latter  part  of  the  parable.  The  proverb  may  be 
brought  into  comparison  :  Habet  Dens  suas  horas.  et  moras. — Since  the  above  was 
written.  I  have  seen  an  essay  by  Ilassler  {Tuhins;.  Zeitschr..  1832,  Ileft  3,  pp. 
117-125).  wherein  he  finds  fault  with  this  explanation,  which  he  denies  to  lie  in  the 
words,  and  makes  koI  pLaKpoStvfiwv  in  avTo7s  a  descri|)tion  of  God's  patience  with 
his  supjdiants.  as  contrasti'd  with  the  fretful  irritation  of  the  judge  under  the 
solicitations  of  her  that  beset  him ;  and  the  passage,  in  his  view,  might  thus  be 
translated.  '  Shall  not  God  avenge  his  own  elect,  when  also  he  is  j)atient  toward 
them  7"  shall  he  not  avenge  them  and  so  much  the  more  while  their  reiterated 
prayers  do  not  vex  or  weary  him  as  that  widow's  prayers  vexed  and  wearied  the 
judge — excite  no  impatience  but  only  i>ity  in  his  heart.  Our  Lord  is  then  giving 
an  additional  motive  why  they  sliould  not  faint  in  prayer.  There  may  be  a  (juestion, 
whether  it  is  not  the  intention  of  the  Vulgate  to  give  this  meaning,  when  it  translates, 


406  THE  UNJUST  JUDGE. 

ing  his  people  as  "  men  count  slackness,"  as  compared  with  the-ir  impa- 
tience, and  with  their  desire  to  be  at  once  delivered  from  affliction ;  but, 
indeed,  "  he  ^vill  avenge  them  speedily^''  not  leaving  them  a  moment  lon- 
ger in  the  fire  of  affliction  than  is  needful,  delivering  them  from  it  the 
instant  that  patience  has  had  its  perfect  work  ;  so  that  there  is,  and  there 
is  meant  to  be,  an  apparent  contradiction,  while  yet  there  is  no  real 
one,  between  ver.  7  and  that  which  follows.  The  relief  which  to  man's 
impatience  seems  to  tarry  long,  indeed  arrives  speedily ;  it  could  not, 
according  to  the  far-seeing  and  loving  counsels  of  God,  have  arrived  a 
moment  earlier.*  We  may  find  a  practical  illustration  of  these  words 
in  the  whole  of  our  Lord's  conduct  with  the  family  of  Bethany  (John 
xi.)  in  the  depths  into  which  he  suffered  them  to  be  brought,  before  he 
arrived  to  aid  ;  just  as,  to  take  a  milder  example,  it  was  not  till  the 
fourth  watch,  in  other  words,  until  the  last,  that  he  came  to  aid  his  dis- 
ciples laboring  in  vain  against  an  adverse  and  perilous  sea.  (Matt.  xiv. 
24,  25.) 

The  words  with  which  the  application  of  the  parable  concludes, 
"  Nevo'tJieless  wh^n  the  Son  of  man  comcth.  shall  he  find  faith  on  the 
earth?"  are  perplexing,  for  they  appear  at  first  sight  to  call  in  question 
the  success  of  his  whole  mediatorial  work.f  But  though  we  have  other 
grounds  for  believing  that  the  Church  will,  at  that  last  moment,  be  re- 
duced to  a  very  little  band ;  yet  here  the  point  is  not  that  there  will  be 
then  few  faithful  or  none,  but  that  the  faith  even  of  the  faithful  will  be 
almost  failing ; — the  distress  will  be  so  urgent,  the  darkness  so  thick, 
at  the  moment  when  at  last  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  forth  for  salva- 
tion and  deliverance,  that  even  the  hearts  of  his  elect  people  will  have 
begun  to  fail  them  for  fear.     The  lateness  of  the  help  Zechariah  (xiv. 

Et  patientiam  habebit  in  illis  1  and  of  Lnther :  Und  sollte  Gednld  dariiber  haben  1 
but  daruber  is  ambiguou.s.  At  all  events  this  interpretation  has  no  claim  to  be  a 
new  light  thrown  upon  the  passage,  as  the  writer  supposes.  Romberg  {Parerga, 
p.  146)  had  long  ago  proposed  it,  and  Wolf  {Curce.  in  loc.)  is  inclined  to  fall  in 
with  it,  who  sums  up  the  meaning  thus ;  Patientia  igitur  Dei  hie  refertur  ad  audi- 
tionem  precum  electorum,  quod  oppositum  judicis  injusti  exemplum  probabile 
reddit.  qui  non  patienter  audiebat  vidutB  querelas. 

*  Unger  {De  Par.  Jes.  Nat.,  p.  136):  Opponuntur  sibi  /j.aKpodv/xwu  atque  €»« 
Tc^x"  iHud  fortasse  ad  hominem  opinionem  (ut  sit,  "  si  vel  tardior  videatur"),  hoc 
ad  sapiens  Dei  consilium  referendum.  Augustine  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  xci.  6)  has  some 
admirable  remarks  on  the  impatience  of  men,  contrasted  with  the  seeming  tardi- 
ness of  God. 

t  We  learn  from  Augustine  that  they  were  used  by  the  Donatists,  in  reply  to 
the  Church,  when  she  pleaded  against  them  her  numbers  and  her  universality 
(Omnes  enim  haeretici  in  paucis  et  in  parte  sunt:  Enarr.  in  Ps.  xxxi  2).  The 
Donatists  answered  (applying  to  their  own  day  this  prophecy  concerning  the  last 
times),  that  the  Lord  himself  had  declared  this  fewness  of  the  faithful;  how  he 
should  hardly  find  faith  on  the  earth. 


THE  UNJUST  JUDGE.  407 

1-5)  describes,  under  the  images  of  the  old  theocracy, — Jerusalem  shall 
be  already  taken,  the  enemy  shall  be  within  its  walls,  spoiling  and  deso- 
lating, when  the  Lord  shall  come  forth,  his  feet  standing  on  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  to  fight  against  its  enemies.  All  help  will  seem  utterly  to 
have  failed,  so  that  the  Son  of  man  at  his  coming  will  hardly  find  faith, 
or  rather  that  faith,  the  faith  which  does  not  faint  in  prayer,  with  allusion 
to  ver.  1, — the  faith  which  hopes  against  hope,  and  believes  that  light  will 
break  forth  even  when  the  darkness  is  thickest,  and  believing  this  contin- 
ues to  pray,* — he  will  hardly  find  that  faith  upon  earth.  The  verse 
stands  parallel  to,  and  may  be  explained  by,  those  other  words  of  our 
Lord's :  '•  For  the  elect's  sake,"  lest  their  faith  also  should  fail,  and  so 
no  flesh  should  be  saved,  "  those  days  shall  be  shortened. "f  (Matt. 
xxiv.  22.) 

*  Theophylact  observes  here  on  faith,  as  the  one  condition  of  prayer,  iraoTjs 
irpofff yxTJ?  ^aSipov  koX  (cpTjTrlj  t]  Tri'tTTir.  And  Augustine :  Si  fides  deficit,  oratio 
perit:  quis  enim  orat  quod  non  credit  ? 

"t  Vitringa's  explanation  of  the  parable  {Erkldr.  d.  Parab.,  p.  9G0,  seq.)  is 
curious.  I  should  think  it  his  own,  and  likely  to  remain  so.  The  unjust  judge 
represents  the  Roman  emperors,  the  importunate  widow  the  early  Church,  which 
sought  evermore  to  plead  its  cause  before  them,  and  by  their  interference  to  be 
delivered  from  its  oppressors.  The  emperors,  aft6r  a  long  while,  undertook  its 
defence,  ceasing  themselves  to  persecute,  and  not  suffering  others  any  more  to 
persecute  it. — Yet  stranger  than  this  is  the  view  of  Irenaius  {Con.  Hetr.,  1.  5.  c. 
25),  and  of  Hippolytus,  or  whoever  else  is  the  author  of  the  treatise  De  Antichristo, 
c.  37.  The  widow  is  the  earthly  Jerusalem,  Israel  after  the  flesh,  which,  forgetful 
of  God,  turns  to  the  unjust  judge,  that  is,  to  Antichrist,  for  Ac  is  the  despiser  alike 
of  God  and  men  (ver.  2),  for  aid  against  him  whom  she  falsely  believes  her 
adversary,  namely,  Christ.  They  see  an  allusion  to  the  last  days  and  to  the 
mighty  part  which,  as  they  assume,  the  unbelieving  Jews  will  have  in  the  setting 
up  of  Antichrist's  kingdom.     (John  v.  43;  Dan.  viii.  12.) 


XXIX. 
THE   PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN. 

Luke  xviii.  9-14. 

The  last  parable  was  to  teach  us  that  prayer  must  be  earnest  and  per- 
severing;  this  that  it  must  also  be  humble.*  Some  have  supposed,  as, 
for  example,  Vitringa,t  that  here  too  we  have  set  forth  before  us  the 
rejection  of  the  Jew  and  the  acceptance  of  the  Gentile ;  the  Pharisee 
being  the  representative  of  that  whole  nation,  which  would  have  taken 
him  as  its  most  favorable  specimen — the  publican,  of  the  Gentiles, 
with  whom  those  despised  collectors  of  customs  were  commonly  classed ; 
the  one  glorying  in  his  merits,  proudly  extolling  himself  above  the  sin- 
ners of  the  Gentiles,  but  through  this  very  pride  and  self-righteousness 
failing  to  become  partaker  of  the  righteousness  of  God  ;  while  the  other, 
meekly  acknowledging  his  vileness,  and  repenting  of  his  sins,  is  justified 
freely  by  his  grace.  But  the  words  with  which  the  parable  is  intro- 
duced (ver.  9),  and  which  must  give  the  law  to  its  interpretation,  are 
opposed  to  this  view.  It  was  spoken  "  uyito  certain  which  trusted  in  them- 
selves that  they  were  righteous^  and  despised  others ;  the  aim  of  it  was  to 

*  Augustine  finds  a  yet  closer  connection :  Quia  fides  non  est  siiperborum  sed 
humilium,  praemissis  subjecit  parabolam  de  humilitate  contra  superbiani. 

•f-  Erkldr.  d.  Parab.,  p.  974.  Augustine  too  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixxiv.  8)  thinks  this 
application  may  be  made,  though  it  is  not  with  hira  the  primary :  Hoc  latins  acci- 
pientes,  intelligamus  duos  populos,  Jud;Borum  et  Gentium :  JudcTeorum  populus 
Pharisjeus  ille,  Gentium  populus  Publicanus  ille.  Judsorum  populus  jactabat 
merita  sua,  Gentium  confidebatur  peccata  sua.  So  H.  de  Sto.  Victore  {Annott.  in 
Imc.)  :  Pharisseus,  Judaicum  populum  sig nificat,  qui  ex  justificationis  legibus  ex- 
tollit  merita  sua,  et  superbiendo  recedit.  Humiliatus  jjublicanus,  Gentilem  signi- 
ficat :  qui  \ongb  k  Deo  positus,  peccata  confitetur,  et  lamentando  propinquat  Deo, 
et  exaltatur.  Schleiermacher  also  observes,  that  it  contradicts  the  idea  of  a 
parable,  that  the  Pharisee  should  here  mean  a  Pharisee,  or  the  Pharisees  gener- 
ally ;  but  this  objection  yields  to  the  fact,  that  the  term  parable  is  of  very  wide 
signification  throughout  the  New  Testament. 


THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN.  409 

cure  a  fault  which  the  Lord  had  noted  in  some  of  those  that  surrounded 
him.  He  had  seen  in  some  of  his  disciples,  displays  of  spiritual  pride, 
— of  self-exaltation,  accompanied,  as  they  always  will  be,  with  the  con- 
tempt of  others.  There  is  no  hint  given  in  the  context  to  lead  us  to 
suppose  that  the  relations  of  Jew  and  Gentile  are  now  before  him :  he  is 
dealing  rather  with  a  spiritual  mischief,  which  he  has  observed  showing 
itself  in  some  of  his  own  followers ;  I  say,  in  some  of  his  own  followers, 
because  I  cannot  for  an  instant  conceive  that  by  the  example  of  a  Pharisee 
he  is  warning  and  rebuking  the  Pharisees.  It  would  have  been  to  no 
profit  to  have  held  up  to  these  the  spectacle  of  a  Pharisee  praying,  as 
this  one  pra3's  in  the  parable.  They  would  have  held  it  only  most  na- 
tural and  proper,  that  he  should  have  prayed  in  this  fashion.*  There 
would  have  been  for  them  no  conviction  of  sin,  but  only  for  a  disciple, 
for  one  who  had  advanced  much  further  in  spiritual  insight,  though  in 
danger  of  falling  back  into  pharisaic  sins.  Such  a  one  would  only 
need  his  sin  to  be  plainly  shown  to  him,  and  he  would  start  back  at  its 
deformity.  He  would  see  the  Pharisee  in  himself,  and  tremble  and 
repent. 

"  Tivo  men  xvent  tip  into  tlietemple  to  jiray^''  we  are  to  suppose  at  one 
of  the  fixed  hours  of  devotion  (Acts  iii.  1 ),  "  tlie  one  a  Pharisee  and  the 
other  a  Publican  ;^^  a  Brahmin  and  a  Pariah,  as  one  might  say,  if  preach- 
ing from  this  Gospel  in  India — the  Pharisee,  a  specimen  of  that  class  of 
men,  who,  satisfying  themselves  with  a  certain  external  freedom  from 
gross  oifences,  have  remained  ignorant  of  the  plague  of  their  own  hearts, 
and  have  never  learned  to  say.  Deliver  me  from  mine  adversary,  who 
do  not  even  know  that  they  have  an  adversary ;  the  other,  the  represen- 
tative of  all  who,  though  they  have  much  and  grievously  transgressed, 
arc  now  feeling  the  burden  of  their  sins,  and  heartily  mourning  them, 
who  also  are  yearning  after  one  who  shall  deliver  them  from  those  sins, 
and  from  the  curse  of  God's  broken  law.  The  parable  would  make  us 
feel  how  much  nearer  is  such  a  one  to  the  kingdom  of  God  than  the 
self-complacent  Pharisee,  or  than  any  who  share  in  the  spirit  and  tem- 
per of  the  Pharisee, — that  he  indeed  may  be  within  it,  while  the  other  is 
without.! 

*  Or  to  take  another  view  of  it.  which  is  Mr.  Greswcll's:  "Of  what  use  in  a 
moral  j)oint  of  view  would  it  be  to  hold  up  to  the  Pharisee  the  true  i)ieture  of 
himself  and  his  secti  or  what  hope  could  there  be  of  correcting  his  characteristic 
vices,  whatever  they  were,  by  laying  them  bare,  and  exjjosing  them  openly  and 
nakedly  before  himself?  Such  an  exposure  might  be  well  calculated  to  iiritate 
and  offend,  but  not  to  reform  or  amend  tliein ;  for  it  cannot  l)e  suppo.sed  that  they 
would  willingly  be  parties  in  their  own  di.sgraco  or  patiently  acquiesce  in  their 
own  condemnation."  See  also  p.  248,  note,  some  important  remarks  on  the 
question  how  far  this  is  a  parable  proper  or  not. 

t  Gregory  the  Great  {Mural.,  1.  19,  c.  21)  wittily  likens  this  Pharisee,  and  all 


410  THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN. 

It  is  a  mistake  growing  out  of  forgetfulness  of  Jewish  and  early 
Christian  customs,  when  some  commentators  see  in  the  fact  that  the 
Pharisee  prayed  standing^  an  evidence  already  manifesting  itself,  of  his 
pride.*  Even  the  parable  itself  contradicts  this  notion,  for  the  publi- 
can, whose  prayer  was  a  humble  one,  stood  also.  But  to  pray  standing 
was  the  manner  of  the  Jews  (1  Kin.  viii.  22;  2  Chron.  vi.  12;  Matt. 
vi.  5  ;  Mark  xi.  25) ;  though  in  moments  of  a  more  than  ordinary  humi- 
liation or  emotion  of  heart,  they  changed  this  attitude  for  one  of  kneel- 
ing or  prostration.  (Dan.  vi.  10  ;  2  Chron.  vi.  13  ;  Acts  ix.  40  ;  xx.  36; 
xxi.  5.)  The  term  station  (statio)  passed  into  the  usage  of  the  Christian 
Church ;  it  was  so  called,  as  Ambrose  explains  it,  because  standing  the 
Christian  soldier  repelled  the  attacks  of  his  spiritual  enemy ;  and  on  the 
Lord's  day  the  faithful  stood  in  prayer,  to  commemorate  their  Saviour's 
resurrection  on  that  day ;  through  which  they,  who  by  sin  had  fallen, 
were  again  lifted  up  and  set  upon  their  feet.f  Some  have  combined  the 
words  somewhat  differently,  and  rendered  the  passage  in  this  way ; 
"  TJve  Pharisee  stood  by  hiniself.\  and  p7-ayed."  There  would  be  cer- 
tainly something  morally  striking  in  this  construction  of  the  passage, 
indicating  as  it  would  that  the  Pharisee, — the  separatist  in  spirit  as  in 
name,i^  and  now  also  in  outward  act, — desired  to  put  a  distance  between 
himself  and  all  unclean  worshippers  (see  Isai.  Ixv.  5) ;  but  the  other 
construction,  it  is  generally  agreed,  should  be  adhered  to. 

His  prayer  at  first  seems  to  promise  well ;  "  God^  I  thank  thee^^  yet 
its  early  promise  quickly  disappears :  under  the  pretence  of  thankful- 
ness to  Grod,  he  does  but  thinly  veil  his  exaltation  of  self ;  and  he  can- 
not thank  God  for  what  he  has  done  for  him,  without  insulting  and  cast- 
ing scorn  upon  others.     He  thanks  him  indeed,  but  not  aright ;  ||  for  the 

who,  because  of  their  victoiy  over  certain  temptations,  are  exalted  with  pride,  and 
so  perisli  through  their  very  successes,  to  Eleazar,  who  killed  the  elephant,  hut 
was  himself  crushed  by  its  falling  body  (1  Mace.  vi.  46) :  In  prjelio  elephantem 
feriens  stravit,  sed  sub  ipso  queni  extinxit,  occubuit. 

*  Tirinus :  Pharisasus  stans  superbo  et  erecto  animo,  quasi  Deum  ad  judicium 
provocans :  so  also  Theophylact.  It  is  possible  however,  the  word  may  be  emphatic, 
— He  stood  forward  prominently  so  that  all  men  might  see  him  as  he  was  engaged 
in  his  devotions  (see  Matt.  vi.  5),  which  would  then  contrast  with  the  f^uKpS^ev 
e<TT<is,  and  the  whole  attitude  of  the  publican ;  on  which  see  Cyprian,  De  Oral. 
Dom.,  ad  init. ;  and  Ambrose,  De  Off.  Minisl.,  1.  1,  c.  18,  ^  70. 

t  See  Bingham's  Chris.  Anit.,  b.  13,  c.  8,  ^  3. 

:|:  So  Cameron  and  J.  Cappellus  in  the  Crit.  Sac,  who  make  irphs  eavrdv^^Ka^' 
fuuT6y. 

^  Hesychius :  ^apta-aios-  a.<p(>}pi<Tixivos,  ixfixepiff/x^vos,  Ko^apSs.  St.  Bernard  observes 
how  he  isolates  himself  in  his  prayer :  Gratias  agit  non  quia  bonus,  sed  quia  solus, 
non  tam  de  bonis  qua;  habet,  quim  de  malis  quae  in  aliis  videt. 

II  Augustine  says  here  {Scnn.  115,  c.  3),  with  an  eye  to  the  Pelagians,  the 
ingrati  gratiae :  Quid  est  ergo  qui  impi^  oppugnat  gratiam,  si  reprehenditur  qui 
Buperbfe  agit  gratias  1 


THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN.  411 

Pharisees,  as  Grotius  well  observes,  "  did  not  exclude  the  divine  help. 
But  tliey  who  allow  it  and  use  this  language,  are  frequently  ungrateful 
to  it,  allotting,  as  they  do,  to  themselves  the  first  share  in  virtuous  ac- 
tions, to  God  the  second ;  or  so  recognizing  common  benefits,  as  to  avoid 
fleeing  as  suppliants  to  that  peculiar  mercy,  which  their  own  sins  re- 
quire."* Thus  it  was  with  him  :  but  the  right  recognition  of  God's 
grace  will  always  be  accompanied  with  deep  selfabasernent,  while  we 
confess  how  little  true  we  have  been  to  that  grace, — how  infinitely  short 
we  are  of  what  we  ought  to,  and  might,  have  been,  having  had  such  help 
at  command  ;  and  moreover  we  shall  thank  him  as  much  for  our  needs, 
for  the  sense  of  need  which  he  has  awakened  within  us,  as  for  the  sup- 
plies of  grace  which  he  has  given  us.  But  this  Pharisee  thanks  God 
that  he  is  "'  not  as  otJier  men"  as  the  rest  of  men,  dividing  the  whole  of 
mankind  into  two  classes,  putting  himself  in  a  class  alone,  and  thrusting 
down  all  besides  himself  into  the  other  class  ;  his  arrogance  reaches  even 
to  such  a  pitch  as  this  ;  he  in  one  class,  all  the  world  besides  in  the  other. 
And  as  he  can  think  nothing  too  good  for  himself,  so  nothing  too  bad  of 
them  ;  they  do  not  merely  come  a  little  short  of  his  excellencies,  but 
they  are  ••  cxtortionn-s.  inijust^  adultems"  And  then,  his  eye  alighting 
on  the  publican. t  of  whom  he  may  have  known  nothing,  but  that  he  was 
a  publican,  he  drags  him  into  his  prayer,  making  him  to  supply  the 
dark  background  on  which  the  bright  colors  of  his  own  virtues  shall 
more  gloriously  appear — and  in  the  blindness  of  his  heart  finding,  it 
may  be,  in  the  deep  heart-earnestness  with  which  the  penitent  was  beat- 
ing his  breast,  in  the  fixedness  of  his  downcast  eyes,  proofs  in  confirma- 
tion of  the  judgment  which  he  passes  upon  him.  ITi\  thank  God,  has  no 
need  to  beat  his  breast  in  that  fashion,  nor  to  cast  his  eyes  in  that  shame 
upon  the  ground  ;  he  has  done  nothing  to  call  for  this. 

So  perfect  is  he  in  regard  to  the  commands  of  the  second  table.  He 
now  returns  to  the  first:  in  that  also  he  is  without  blame.  "  I  fast  twice 
in  the  ivcc/c."  He  is  evidently  boasting  of  his  works  of  supererogation. 
According  to  the  law  of  Moses,  but  one  fast-day  in  the  year  was  ap- 

*  There  is  an  interesting  anecdote  told  of  the  writer  of  these  words,  which 
connc^cts  itself  with  this  parable.  At  Rostock,  where  he  was  overtaken  by  a 
mortal  illness  on  his  way  to  Sweden,  he  was  attended  on  his  death-bed  by  a 
Lutlu'ran  clorgj-nian,  named  Quistorp.  "When  this  last  remindi-d  him.  with  the 
fidelity  duo  to  a  djing  man,  on  the  one  side,  of  all  his  sins  known  and  unknown, 
and  on  tlie  other,  not  of  his  merits  and  reputation  which  filled  the  world,  but  only 
of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  as  of  the  one  way  of  salvation,  and  of  the 
publican  who  had  known  how  to  lay  hold  of  that  way.  Grotius  replied,  "  I  am  that 
publiean  "  and  so  expired.  Quistorj)  has  himself  given  the  account  in  a  letter  to 
Calovius.  the  old  antivgonist  of  Grotius. 

t  Augustine  {Enarr.  1»  in  Ps.  Ixx.  2) :  Hoc  jam  non  est  exsultare,  sed  in- 
sultare. 


412  THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN. 

pointed,  the  great  day  of  atonement*  (Lev.  xvi.  29 ;  Num.  xxix.  7),  but 
the  more  religious  Jews,  both  those  who  were  so  and  those  who  would 
seem  so,  and  especially  the  Pharisees,  kept  two  fasts  weekly,!  on  the 
second  and  fifth  days  in  the  week.  Thus  does  he :  nor  is  this  all :  "  / 
give  titJies  of  all  tluxt  I  possess  ;"|  the  law  commanded  only  to  tithe  the 
fruit  of  the  field  and  produce  of  the  cattle  (Num.  xviii.  21  ;  Deut. 
xiv.  22 ;  Lev.  xxvii.  30),  but  he  tithed  mint  and  cummin  (Matt,  xxiii. 
23),  all  that  came  into  his  possession,  down  to  the  trifles  on  which  there 
was  question,  even  in  the  Jewish  schools,  whether  it  was  needful  to  tithe 
them  or  not.  (Hos.  xii.  8.)  He  would  therefore  in  both  respects  lay 
claim  to  doing  more  than  might  strictly  be  demanded  of  him ;  he  would 
bring  in  Grod  as  his  debtor  ;  turning  those  very  precepts  concerning 
fasting  and  paying  of  tithes,  which  were  given  to  men,  the  first  to  waken 
in  them  the  sense  of  inward  poverty  and  need,  the  second  to  bring  them 
to  feel  that  whatever  they  had,  they  were  debtors  for  it  to  Grod  and 
stewards  of  his, — turning  even  these  into  occasions  for  self-exaltation, 
and  using  them  to  minister  to  his  arrogance  and  his  pride.  Acknow- 
ledgment of  wants  or  confession  of  sin,  there  is  none  in  his  prayer,  if 
prayer  it  can  be  called,  which  is  without  these. §  "Had  he  then  no 
sins  to  confess  1  Yes,  he  too  had  sins,  but  perverse  and  knowing  not 
whither  he  had  come,  he  was  like  a  patient  on  the  table  of  a  surgeon, 
who  should  show  his  sound  limbs  and  cover  his  hurts.  But  let  God  cover 
thy  hurts,  and  not  thou:  for  if,  ashamed,  tlwu  seekest  to  cover  them, 
the  physician  will  not  cure  them.  Let  him  cover  and  cure  them ;  for 
under  the  covering  of  the  physician  the  wound  is  healed,  under  the  cov- 
ering of  the  sufferer  it  is  only  concealed;  and  concealed  from  whom? 
from  him  to  whom  all  things  are  known." || 


*  Called  therefore  t)  vricrrela,  Acts  xxvii.  9 ;  and  by  Philo,  i/rja-relas  koprf). 

■\  The  Latin  Fathers  are  led  astray  by  the  tov  ffa^^drov  here  (in  the  Vulgate, 
in  sabbato),  and  understand  the  Pharisee  to  say  that  he  fasted  twice  upon  the 
Sabbath. — though  it  is  difficult  to  guess  what  they  could  have  understood  by  the 
twice  fasting  upon  one  day.  (See  Augustine's  Ep.  36,  c.  4.)  But  the  week  was 
entitled,  ra  tra^para,  or  sometimes  as  here,  rh  (rd^^arov,  deriving  its  title  from  its 
chiefest  day,  as  on  the  other  hand  the  Sabbath  was  called  l/35o/uay. 

:}:  "Offa  KTwixai,  which  should  be  rather.  All  that  I  acquire,  or,  All  that  I  earn 
(quae  mihi  redeunt).  It  is  only  the  perfect  KiKT-qfiai  which  means,  I  possess. — in 
other  words,  I  have  earned.  All  the  English  translations,  vni\\  the  Vulgate  (quae 
possideo),  share  in  a  common  error. 

()  Augustine  {Serm.  290,  c.  6):  Rogare  veneras,  an  te  laudarel  totum  te  ha- 
bere dixisti ;  nihil  tanquam  egens  petisti.  Quoraodo  ergo  orare  venisti  1  And 
Servi.  115.  c.  6:  Parum  est,  non  Deiun  rogare  sed  se  laudare;  insuper  et  roganti 
insultare. 

II  Augustine  {Enarr.  2»  iii  Ps.  xxxi.  2),  who  has  in  the  same  place  much  more 
that  is  excellent  on  this  parable.     See,  also,  Serm.  351,  c.  1 :  Non  enim  ille  Phari- 


THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN.  413 

It  aggravates  our  sense  of  the  moral  outrage  which  is  involved  in  the 
Pharisee's  contemptuous  allusion  to  his  fellow-worshipper,  if  we  keep  in 
mind  that  in  this  last  we  are  to  see  one  who  at  this  very  moment  was 
passing  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  who  had  come  in  the  fulness  of  a  con- 
trite heart,  to  make,  as  I  think  evidently  is  meant,  the  first  deep  confes- 
sion of  his  sins  past  which  had  ever  found  utterance  from  his  lips,  in 
whom  under  sore  pangs  the  new  man  was  being  born.  How  horrible  a 
thing  does  the  Pharisee's  untimely  scorn  appear,  when  we  think  of  it, 
mingling  as  a  harshest  discord  with  the  songs,  the  Te  Deums  of  angels, 
whicli  at  this  very  moment  hailed  the  lost  which  was  found,  the  sinner 
that  repented.  For  "  tlie  publican  st.aiiding  afar  off"  though,  as  Augus- 
tine observes,  not  afar  oflF  from  God,  for  the  Lord  is  ?iigh  unto  them  that 
are  of  a  contrite  heart,  '•  ivoidd  iiot  lift  up  so  much  as  his  eyes*  unto 
/leaven,"  to  the  dwelling  of  the  Holy  One,  for  he  felt  as  the  prodigal, 
that  he  had  sinned  against  heaven  (Luke  xv.  18),  as  Ezra  when  he  ex- 
claimed, "  0  my  God  I  am  ashamed,  and  blush  to  lift  up  my  face  to 
thee,  my  God :  for  our  iniquities  are  increased  over  our  heads,  and  our 
trespass  is  grown  up  unto  the  heavens."  (Ezra  ix.  6.)  He  stood  "  afar 
off"  not  that  he  was  a  proselyte  or  a  heathen,  or  had  not  full  right  to 
approach,  for  undoubtedly  he  also  was  a  Jew ;  but  in  reverent  awe,  not 
prevsnming  to  press  nearer  to  the  holy  place,  for  he  knew  something  of 
the  holiness  of  God,  and  (which  always  exactly  keeps  pace  with  that 
knowledge)  of  his  own  sinfulness  and  defilement :  he  felt  that  his  sins 
had  set  him  at  a  distance  from  God,  and  until  he  had  received  the 
atonomeut,  the  propitiation  which  he  asks  for,  he  could  not  presume  to 
draw  near.  Moreover,  he  '■'■smote  upon  his  breast"  an  outward  sign  of 
inward  grief  or  self-accusationf  (Luke  xxiii.  48),  as  one  judging  him- 
self, that  he  might  not  be  judged  of  the  Lord,  and  who  would  acknow- 
ledge how  much  heavier  strokes  might  justly  come  upon  him, — at  the 

sfpus  tarn  sua  sanitat«  (luam  morhorum  alienorum  comparatione  gaudebat.  Utilius 
autcin  illi  <rat  (luoniam  ad  mcdicum  vonerat.  ea  de  quibus  aegrotabat  confitendo 
rr.oiistiarc  (|ua.ni  dissinmlare  a  \ailnoribus  suis.  et  de  cicatricibiis  alionis  audere 
glfiiiaii,  Non  i-rgo  minim  si  publicanus  magis  curatus  abscessit,  quem  non  puduit 
osU'iidiTf  ijiiod  dolobat.    Cf.  Ciihysostom.  De  Panit..  Horn.  2,  4. 

*  A'"/  an  mur/i  as  /lis  cues  " — far  less  then  his  hands  and  his  countenance,  which 
yet  would  be  usually  lifted  up  in  prayer  (1  Tim.  ii.  8;  1  Kin.  viii.  54;  Heb.  xii.  12; 
Ps.  xxviii.  2) ;  which  no  doubt  tlie  Pharisee  had  lifted  up  in  his.  The  feeling,  that 
in  the  eyes  cast  down  to  the  ground  is  the  natural  expression  of  shame  and  humi- 
liation, is  permanently  embodied  in  the  word  Kar-fitptia.  from  koto  and  (pdos.  Cf. 
Taeitus  (Ifisf.  4,  72):  Stabant  conscicntia  flagitii  niiEsUe  fi.vis  in  terram  oculis. 

t  Augustine  (Srr7?i.  fi".  c.  1):  Tundere  pectus,  quid  est.  nisi  argcre  quod  latet 
in  pectore.  et  evidenti  i)ulsu  occultum  castigarc  pcccatum;  for  as  elsewhere  he 
says :  Quid  est  homo  puenitcLS,  nisi  homo  sibi  irascens  1  Bengal :  Ubi  dolor,  ibi 
manus. 


414  THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN. 

same  time  "  sayings  God  be  merciful*  to  me  a  sinner ^''\  or  "  to  me,  the 
sinful  one ;"  for  as  the  other  had  singled  himself  out  as  the  most  emi- 
nent of  saints,  or  indeed  as  the  one  holy  one  in  the  world,  so  the  publi- 
can singles  himself  out  as  the  chief  of  sinners,  the  man  in  whom  all  sins 
have  met — a  characteristic  trait !  for  who  at  that  moment  when  he  is 
first  truly  convinced  of  his  sins,  thinks  any  other  man's  sins  can  be 
equal  to  his  own  1 

And  he  found  the  mercy  which  he  asked  ;  his  prayer  like  incense 
ascended  unto  heaven,  a  sacrifice  of  sweet  savor,  while  the  prayer  of 
the  other  was  blown  back  like  smoke  into  his  own  eyes  ;  for  "  God  re- 
sisteth  the  proud,  but  giveth  grace  unto  the  humble:"  '■'•  I  tell  you  this 
man  went  down  to  his  house  justified  ratlier  than  tJie  ot}ier."\  Not 
merely  was  he  justified  in  the  secret,  unsearchable  counsels  of  God,  but 
he  "  we7it  doivn  to  his  house  justified  ^^''  with  a  sweet  sense  of  a  received 
forgiveness  shed  abroad  upon  his  heart ;  for  God's  justification  of  the 
sinner  is  indeed  a  transitive  act,  and  passes  from  him  to  its  object.  The 
other  meanwhile  went  down  from  the  temple,  his  prayer  being  finished, 
with  the  same  cold,  dead  heart,  with  which  he  had  gone  up.  Christ  does 
not  mean  that  one  by  comparison  with  the  other  was  justified,  for  there 
are  no  degrees  in  justification,  but  that  one  absolutely  was  justified,  was 
contemplated  of  God  as  a  righteous  man,  and  the  other  was  not;^  so 

*  'Waa-^riri.  The  selection  of  this  word  is  very  ohservable :  see  Passow,  who 
without  any  reference  to  Scripture,  shows  how  lXa.ffKoiJ.at  implies  not  reconciliation 
only,  but  reconciliation  effected  through  some  gift,  or  sacrifice,  or  offering;  so  that 
Cocher  (Analccfa,  in  loc.)  has  right  when  he  says :  Earn  vocis  l\aff^Ti  vim  esse,  ut 
causam  meritoriam  propiliationis,  nempe  cruentam  Christi  passionem  et  mortem, 
simul  comprehendat  et  indicet. 

t  Augustine  {In  Evang.  Joh.,  Tract.  12):  Qui  confitetur  peccata  sua  et  accu- 
sat  peccata  sua,  jam  cum  Deo  facit.  Accusal  Deus  peccata  tua :  si  et  tu  accusas, 
conjungeris  Deo.  Quasi  duae  res  sunt,  homo  et  peccator.  Quod  aiidis  homo,  Deus 
fecit :  quod  audis  peccator,  ipse  homo  fecit.  Dele  quod  fecisti,  ut  Deus  salvet 
quod  fecit.  Oportet  ut  oderis  in  te  opus  tuum,  et  ames  in  te  opus  Dei.  Cf  Serm. 
36,  c.  11 ;  and  Enarr.  in  Ps.  Ixvi.  5.  Of  this  publican  he  says  {Enarr.  in  Ps. 
xxxix.) :  Sibi  non  pacebat  ut  ille  parceret,  se  agnoscebat  ut  ille  ignosceret,  se 
puniebat  ut  ille  liberaret. 

X  The  reading  SeSiicoicojUeVoy  .  .  .  ^  iKtlvos ;  which  is  the  lectio  recepta  of  our 
Greek  Testaments,  has,  I  believe,  no  MS.  authority  for  it  whatever.  It  was  an 
unauthorized  emendation  in  the  Elzevir  edition,  which  has  since  held  its  place  in 
the  text.  The  question  lies  between  the  readings  ^  yap  iKe7vos,  which  has  far  the 
greater  amount  of  outward  authority  in  its  favor,  but  is  hardly  intelligible,  and 
rap  fKelvou,  which,  with  less  external  support,  has  yet  been  received,  as  it  seems  to 
me  rightly,  into  the  text  of  the  later  critical  editions.  It  is  probable  that  IIAP 
having  by  mistake  been  written  TAP,  the  insertion  of  fi  and  the  change  of  tKilvov 
into  tKilvos  followed,  as  needful  to  make  the  words  render  up  any  sense  at  all. 

\)  It  is  characteristic  that  this  should  be  denied  by  nearly  all  the  chief  com- 
mentators of  the  Roman  Church,  though  in  fact  this  is  the  very  truth  which  the 


THE  PHARISEE  AND  THE  PUBLICAN.  415 

that  here  the  words  found  their  fulfilment,  "  He  hath  filled  the  hungry 
with  good  things,  and  the  rich  he  hath  sent  empty  away  ;"  •'  Tliough  the 
Lord  be  high,  yet  hath  he  respect  unto  the  lowly,  but  the  proud  he 
knoweth  afar  off."  (Ps.  cxxxviii.  6;  Isai.  Ivii.  15;  1  Pet.  v.  5,  G.)*  And 
the  whole  parable  fitly  concludes  with  that  weighty  saying,  which  had 
already  formed  part  of  another  of  the  Lord's  discourses  (xiv.  11),  and 
which,  indeed,  from  the  all-important  truth  which  it  contains,  might  well 
have  been  often  uttered  :  "  For  every  one  that  exaltetk  Idmsclf  shall  be 
abased^  ami  lie  that  humhleth  himself  shall  be  exalted  ;"  f  words  which 
here  form  a  beautiful  transition  to  the  bringing  of  the  children  to  Jesus, 
the  incident  next  recorded  by  our  Evangelist. 

parable  is  to  teach.  Thus  Maldonatus :  Non  significatur  aut  piiblicannm  verfe 
justificatum  fuissc,  aut  verfe  damriatum  Pharisiuum,  (juanquani  ita  Eiithyniius 
intelligit.  He  might  have  added  many  more  who  so  understand  it;  Tertullian,  for 
instance  {Adv.  Marc,  1.  4,  c.  36),  affirms :  Alterum  reprobatura,  alteram  justifica- 
tum dcscendisse ;  and  Augustine :  Nam  superbia  in  Pharisa^o  de  templo  damnata 
descendit,  et  humilitas  in  publicano  ante  Dei  oculos  approbata  ascendit. 

*  Augustine  says  of  these  two  in  the  parable  {Enarr.  in  Ps.  xciii.  12):  Hie 
superbus  erat  in  bonis  factis,  ille  humilis  in  malis  factis.  .  .  .  Placuit  Deo  magis 
humilitas  in  malis  factis,  quam  superbia  in  bonis.  These  are  striking  words,  yet 
will  not  bear  any  close  examination.  There  may  be,  and  was  here,  a  humilitas  post 
mala  facta,  but  there  is  no  humilitas  in  malis  factis,  since  in  cverij  sin  there  is  a 
root  of  deadly  pride  out  of  which  it  grows,  a  daring  of  the  creature  to  lift  itself  up 
against  the  Creator ;  and  again,  tliere  is  no  possibility  of  a  superbia  in  bonis,  since 
they  cease  to  be  good  in  which  this  pride  mingles. 

t  Augustine :  Videte,  fratres,  miraculum  magnum,  altus  est  Deus ;  erigis  te,  et 
fugit  a  te ;  humilias  te,  et  descendit  ad  te ;  and  of  this  Pharisee  {Enarr.  2»  in  Ps. 
xxxi.  4):  Noluit  humiliari  confessione  iniquitatis  suae;  humiliatus  est  poudere 
manfis  Dei. 


XXX. 
THE   PO  UNDS. 

Luke  xix.  11-27. 

The  chiefest  part  of  what  might  else  have  been  said  upon  this  parable, 
has  been  anticipated  in  that  of  the  Talents.  The  reasons  for  affirming 
this  to  be  not  the  same,  but  another  parable,  have  been  already  given. 
Not  to  speak  of  the  many  and  important  variations  between  the  two — 
variations  so  important  that  the  two  accounts  can  scarcely  be  records  of 
the  same  discourse — the  parables  bear  the  most  decisive  marks,  each 
one,  of  its  adaptation  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  it  is 
recorded  as  having  been  spoken ;  while  in  each  case,  the  other  would 
not  fit  the  time  or  place  at  all  so  well.*  But  on  this  matter  it  will  be 
needless  to  repeat,  save  exceedingly  briefly,  what  has  been  already  said. 
We  are  first  informed  what  the  motive  of  the  parable  was  :  "  He  added 
and  spake  a  parable,  because  he  was  nigh  to  Jerusalem,  and  because  they 
thought  that  the  kingdom  of  God  should  immediately  appear?''     It  was 

I  uttered  then  to  repress  impatience,  to  teach  the  need  of  a  patient  waiting 
for  Christ,  and  not  merely  that,  but  also  of  an  active  working  for  him 
during  the  time  of  his  absence :  such  was  its  aim  as  regarded  those  who 
had  joined  themselves  entirely  to  him,  and  had  placed  themselves  to  him 
in  the  relation  of  servants  to  their  Lord  and  Master.  But  he  had  also 
other  hearers  on  this  his  last  journey  to  Jerusalem,  such  as  had  not  in- 
deed thus  attached  themselves  to  him,  but  a  multitude  drawn  together  by 
wonder,  by  curiosity,  and  by  other  mingled  motives.  These,  though 
now  having  a  certain  good  will  toward   Christ   and  his  doctrine,  and 

J  though  be^ng,  so  long  as  they  were  in  his  presence,  to  a  considerable 
degree  under  his  influence,  yet  not  the  less  were  exposed  to  all  the  evil 
influences  of  their  age,  and  liable  to  be  drawn  presently  into  the  mighty 

*  Chrysostom  {In  Matth.  Horn.  78)  distinctly  affirms  them  to  be  different,  and 
had  not  Aiigustine  believed  them  so,  we  may  confidently  assume  that  in  his  work, 
De  Consensu  Evang.,  he  would  have  sought  to  bring  them  into  harmony. 


THE  POUNDS.  417 

Stream  of  hostility  which  was  now  running  so  fiercely  and  so  fast  againet 
him :  and  this  especially,  when  in  his  own  person  he  was  no  more 
among  them,  when  his  death  had  seemed  to  belie  his  lofty  pretensions. 
For  them  is  meant  that  part  of  the  parable  (ver.  14-27)  concerning  the 
citizens  who  liat<3d  to  hiive  their  countryman  set  over  them  as  their  kin"' 
and  as  soon  as  he  had  withdrawn  from  them  for  a  while  sent  after  him 
messages,  disclaiming  him  for  their  lord,  but  who  at  his  return  paid  the 
fearful  penalties  of  their  hatred  and  defiance. 

In  the  great  Roman  empire,  wherein  the  senate  of  Rome,  and  after- 
wards its  emperors,  though  not  kings  themselves,  yet  made  and  unmade 
kings,  such  a  circumstance  as  that  which  serves  for  the  groundwork  of 
this  parable  can  have  been  of  no  unfrequent  occurrence.  Thus  Herod 
the  Great  was  at  first  no  more  than  a  subordinate  officer  in  Judiea,*  and 
flying  to  Rome  before  Antigonus,  was  there  declared  by  the  senate, 
through  the  influence  of  Antony,  king  of  the  Jews.  In  like  manner  his 
son  Arehelaus  had  personally  to  wait  upon  Augustus  in  Rome,  before 
he  inherited  his  father's  dominions,  which  he  then  did,  not  indeed  as  king, 
but  only  as  etlmarch.  History  furnishes  many  other  examples,  for  it 
was  felt  over  the  world,  in  the  words  of  the  historian  of  the  Macca- 
bees, "whom  they  [the  Romans]  would  help  to  a  kingdom,  those  reign, 
and  whom  again  they  would,  they  displace."  (1  Mace.  viii.  13.)  That 
he  who  should  thus  seek  and  obtain  a  kingdom  was  one  well-born,  a 
"  «o6/e«mrt,"  is  only  what  we  should  naturally  expect,  as  it  would  be  little 
likely  that  any  other  would  lift  his  hopes  so  high,  or  would  have  such 
probal)ility  of  being  unable  to  maintain  himself  on  his  throne,  as  would 
render  it  likely  that  the  higher  autliority  would  install  him  there.  Nor 
is  this  circumstance  without  its  deeper  sigr)ificance,  for  who  was  of  such 
noble  birtli  as  he,  who,  even  according  to  the  flesh,  came  of  earth's  first 
blood — was  the  Son  of  Abraham,  the  Son  of  David ;  who  was  besides 
the  eternal  and  only-begotten  Son  of  God? 

The  kingdom  which  this  nobleman  goes  to  receive,  can  scarcely  be, 
as  some  understand  it,  another  kingdom,  at  a  distance  from  tlie  land  of 
his  birth,  but  rather  he  goes  to  receive  the  investiture  of  that  kingdom, 
whereof  before  he  was  only  one  of  the  more  illustrious  citizens,  and 
which  after  a  while  he  returns  to  reign  over  as  its  king.  Either  sup- 
position, it  is  true,  would  suit  Jiis  case,  whom  this  nobleman  represents : 
he  went  to  be  enthroned  in  his  heavenly  state,  and  in  heaven  to  rule 
over  all  as  the  Son  of  man  (Heb.  ii.  7,  8) ;  thus  Theophylact  explains 
it.  But  it  might  with  equal  truth  be  said  that  he  went  to  receive  solemn 
investiture  of  that  earthly  kingdom,  which  he  had  purchased  with  his 
blood,  and  which  hereafter  he  shall  return  and  claim  as  his  own,  sitting 

*  First  Procurator ;  afterwards.  o-rpoTTryij. 
27 


418  THE  POUNDS. 

on  the  throne  of  his  father  David  ; — and  the  circumstances  of  the  narra- 
tive evidently  point  to  the  last  as  the  correcter  view  of  the  matter.     It 

^  was  not  over  strangers,  but  over  his  fellow-citizens,  that  the  nobleman 
departed  to  solicit  a  dominion — else  would  there  be  no  meaning  in  their 
message,  "  We  ivill  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  its  ;"  whether  these 
words  imply,  as  generally  taken,  that  they,  hearing  of  his  purpose  to  go 
and  solicit  the  kingdom,  give  him  notice  beforehand  that  they  will  yield 
him  no  obedience,  that  however  he  may  receive  at  other  hands  the  do- 
minion over  him,  they  will  not  acknowledge  his  rule,  nor  own  allegi- 
ance to  him, — or  whether,  as  is  more  probable,  it  is  a  message,  or  an 
embassage  rather,  which  they  send  to  the  court  whither  he  has  gone,  to 
anticipate  and  counter-work  him  there,  to  declare  how  unwelcome  his 
exaltation  would  be ; — "  We  do  not  desire  that  this  man  should  be  made 
our  king."*  It  was  exactly  thus  that  a  faction  of  the  Jews,  in  the 
case  of  Archelaus,  sent  ambassadors  to  the  court  of  Augustus  to  accuse 
him  there,  and  if  possible  to  hinder  his  elevation  over  them.  So  again 
we  find  him  on  his  return  exercising  kingly  functions  among  his  fellow- 
citizens — setting  his  servants  over  five  cities,  and  over  ten — having ' 
power  of  life  and  death,  and  executing  extreme  judgment  on  those  that 
had  refused  to  admit  his  authority.  There  can  hardly  then  be  a  ques- 
tion but  that  the  kingdom  which  he  goes  to  receive,  is  not  any  other, 
but  that  very  same  of  which  he  was  himself  originally  a  citizen. 

Before  however  he  went,  "Ac  called  his  ten  servants^''  or  rather,  ten 
servants  of  his,t  "  and  delivered  them  ten  pounds^  and  said  unto  tliem, 
OccupyX  till  I  come^  The  sum  here  delivered  to  the  servants  is  very 
much  smaller  than  that  which,  in  St.  Matthew,  the  man  who  was  travel- 
ling into  a  far  country  committed  to  his  servants'  keeping  (^  This  is  at 
once  explained,  if  we  keep  in  mind  how  that  parable  was  spoken  to  the 

•  apostles,  who  of  course  had  received  infinitely  the  largest  gifts  of  any 

*  The  speaking  of  him  in  the  third  person,  "  this  man"  {tovtov),  seems  a  strong 
confirmation  of  tliis  view,  and  wpeix^eia  is  an  embassage  rather  than  a  message. 
(See  Luke  xiv.  32.) 

f  Besides  that  the  original  requires  this,  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that, 
with  the  immense  households  of  antiquity,  which,  as  Seneca  says,  were  nations 
rather  than  flimilies  (see  Becker's  Galliis,  v.  1,  p.  106),  this  nobleman,  of  con- 
sequence enough  to  be  raised  to  a  royal  dignity,  had  but  ten  servants  belonging 
tp  him. 

ij:  Upayuarevcraa-^e,  employ  in  trading.     "  Occvpij"  is  here  a  Latinism.     Thus, 

occuparc  pccmiiam,  because  money  in  business,  or  piit  out  to  interest,  does  not  lie 

idle,  is  in  fact  occupied  or  employed.     So  in  North's  Plutarch,  p.  629,  Phocion 

/  refusing  Alexander's  gift,  says,  "  If  I  should  take  this  sum  of  money  and  occupy  it 

not,  it  is  as  much  as  I  had  it  not." 

^  A  talent  was  =  £2iZ  los. ;  a  pound  (mina)  =  je4  Is.  Bd.  (See  the  Diet,  of 
Or.  and  Rom.  Antt.,  s.  v.  Drachma,  p.  360.) 


THE  POUNDS.  419 

from  Christ,  while  this  is  spoken  to  the  disciples  generally,  whose  facul- 
ties were  comparatively  fewer.  How  remarkable  is  this  still  ministry, 
these  occupations  of  peace  in  which  the  servants  of  the  future  king  should 
be  engaged,  and  that  too  while  a  rebellion  was  going  on.  A  ca\dller 
remarkably  enough  asks,  "  Why  did  he  not  distribute  weapons  to  his 
servants?  Such  would  have  been  under  present  circumstances  the  most 
natural  thing  to  have  done."  Doubtless  the  niost  natural^  as  Peter  felt 
when  he  cut  oflf  the  ear  of  the  servant  of  the  high  priest,  as  all  liave  felt, 
who  have  sought  to  fight  the  world  with  its  own  weapons,  and  by  the 
wrath  of  man  to  work  the  righteousness  of  God.  Such  identifying  of 
the  Church  with  a  worldly  kingdom  has  been  the  idea  of  the  Papacy, 
such  of  the  Anabaptists.  Men  in  either  case  feeling  strongly  that  there 
must  be  a  kingdom  of  God,  have  supposed  that  it  was  immediately  to 
appear  (ver.  11),  and  that  they,  and  not  Christ  himself,  were  to  bring  it 
into  this  outward  form  and  subsistence — instead  of  seeing  that  their  part 
was,  with  the  still  and  silent  occupation  of  their  talent,  to  lay  the  rudi- 
ments of  that  kingdom,  and  so  to  prepare  the  world  for  its  outbreaking, 
— which  outbreaking  should  yet  not  actually  come  to  pass,  till  the  King 
returned  in  his  glory. 

The  Jews  were  especially  Christ's  fellow-" c^^^^c«s,"  for,  according  to 
the  flesh,  he  was  of  the  seed  of  Abraham^  a  Jew  and  a  member  of  the 
Jewish  polity  ; — and  they  hated  him  not  merely  in  his  life,  and  until  his 
departure  out  of  this  world,  but  every  persecution  of  his  servants — the 
stoning  of  Stephen — the  beheading  of  Jame.s — the  persecutions  of  Paul, 
and  all  the  wrongs  which  they  did  to  his  people  for  his  name's  sake,  and 
because  they  were  his,  were  each  and  all  messages  of  defiance  sent  after 
him.  implicit  declarations  upon  their  part,  "  We  ivi/l  not  have  this  tnan 
to  reign  over  ifs?''  And  Thcopliylact  well  observes,  how  twice  this  very 
declaration  found  formal  utterance  from  their  lips, — once  when  they 
cried  to  Pilate,  "  We  have  no  king  but  Cassar ;"  and  again,  when  they 
said,  '•  Write  not,  The  King  of  the  Jews."  When  we  give  this  parable 
a  wider  range,  and  find  the  full  accomplishment  of  all  which  it  contains, 
not  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  but  at  the  day  of  judgment, — and 
it  is  equally  capable  of  the  narrower  and  the  wider  interpretation, — then 
these  rebellious  citizens  will  no  longer  be  merely  the  Jews,  but  all  such 
evil  men,  as  by  word  or  deed  openly  deny  their  relation  and  subjection 
to  Jesus,  as  their  Lord  and  King  (in  this  diff"erent  from  the  unfaithful 
servant,  for  he  allows  the  relation,  and  does  not  openly  throw  off  the 
subjection,  but  yet  evades  the  obligation  by  the  false  glosses  of  his  own 
heart),  and  their  message  will  have  its  full  and  final  fulfilment  in  the 
great  apostasy  of  the  last  days,  which  shall  be  even  a><  this  is,  not  an 
evading  merely  of  the  subjection  due  unto  Christ,  but  a  speaking  of 


420  THE  POUNDS. 

great  things  against  him  (Rev.  xiii.  5,  6 ;  Dan.  vii.  25).  not  merely  diso 
/  bedience.  but  defiance,  even  such  as  shall  not  be  content  with  resi:*ting 
his  decrees,  but  shall  anticipate  and  ctallenge  him  to  the  conflict ;  '  The 
kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers  take  counsel  together, 
against  the  Lord  and  against  his  Anointed,  saying,  Let  us  break  their 
bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  their  cords  from  us." 

On  the  following  verses  (1.5-23)  there  is  little  to  say  which  has  not 
been  said  in  another  place.  At  his  return,  the  nobleman  distributes 
praise  and  rewards  to  them  that  have  been  faithful  to  him  while  he  was 
away. — punishments,  more  or  less  severe,  to  them  who  have  abused  the 
opportunity,  and  taken  advantage  of  his  absence.*  The  rewards  which 
he  imparts  to  his  faithful  servants,  are  royal,  and  this  consistently  with 
the  royal  dignity,  with  which  he  is  now  invested ;  he  sets  them  over 
cities  :t  while  the  rewards  imparted  were  quite  different  in  the  other 
parable  (Matt  xxv.  14-30) — for  there  the  master  being  but  a  private 
man  would  have  no  such  power  of  setting  his  servants  in  high  places  of 
authority.  This  is  worthy  of  notice,  as  an  example  of  the  manner  in 
which  each  parable  is  in  perfect  keeping  and  harmony  with  itself 
through  all  its  minor  details,  which  is  another  reason  for  believing  them 
originally  distinct  from  one  another.  The  rewards  too,  as  they  are 
kingly,  so  are  they  also  proportioned  to  the  fidelity  of  the  servants  :  he 
whose  pound  had  made  five  pounds  was  set  over  five  cities. — he  whose 

*  This,  of  course,  is  borrowed  from  the  life,  and  is  what  often  must  have  hap- 
pened. We  may  compare  the  conduct  of  Alexander,  rewarding  and  punishing 
after  his  return  from  his  long  Indian  expedition,  from  which  so  many  in  Westeru 
Asia  had  believed  that  he  never  would  come  back.  (See  the  Bishop  of  St.  Da- 
vid's Hist,  of  Greece,  v.  7,  p.  62.  seq.) 

f  Such  a  method  of  showing  grace  to  servants  was  not  uncommon  iu  the  East. 
Barhebraus  (quoted  by  Havernick,  Onnin.  ub.  Dan.,  p.  87)  tells  of  a  slave,  who. 
giving  proofs  of  his  prudence  and  dexterity  in  business,  his  master,  the  Sultan 
Zangi,  exclaimed.  •  It  is  fit  to  give  such  a  man  as  this,  command  over  a  city."  and 
at  once  he  made  him  governor  of  the  Kurisch,  and  sent  him  thither. — I  cannot  find 
the  force  in  these  words,  -"Have  thou  authority  over  ten  cities.  &c.,"  which  Mr. 
GreswcU  does,  when  they  supply  him  with  a  convincing  argument  in  favor  of  the 
millennial  views  {E.tp.  of  the  Par.,  v.  4.  p.  501).  for  why  should  this  image  of 
ruling  over  cities  be  interpreted  literally  1  nay.  being  found  in  a  parable,  must  it 
not  be  accepted  as  an  image  only,  which  we  are  not  to  hold  flist  in  the  letter,  but. 
on  the  contrary,  must  seek  to  exchange  for  the  truth  which  imderlies  it"?  That 
truth  certainly  is,  that  he  who  is  taithful  in  a  little  iiere  (and  all  here  is  little  com- 
pared to  what  is  coming),  to  him  much  will  be  intrusted  in  a  future  age.  But 
more  than  this,  or  what  that  much  will  be,  is  in  no  wise  defined,  though  this, 
which  Bengel  notes  on  these  "  ten  cities"  is  doubtless  true  :  Magna  rerum  ampli- 
tudo  ac  vai  ietas  in  regno  Dei.  quamvis  nondum  nobis  cognita.  We  only  know,  in 
Calvin's  words:  Nunc  tanquam  absentis  negotia  laborii^>fe  curamus:  tunc  vero 
ampla  et  multiplex  honorum  copia  ei  ad  mamun  suppetet,  qua.  -.r.-:;..  fe  nos 
exornet. 


THE  POUNDS.  421 

pound  had  made  ten  was  set  over  ten.  We  hear  nothing  of  the  other 
seven  servants,  but  need  not  therefore  conclude  that  they  had  wholly 
lost  or  wasted  the  money  intrusted  to  them  ;*  rather  that  the  three  who 
come  forward  are  adduced  as  specimens  of  classes,  and  the  rest,  while 
all  that  we  are  to  learn  is  learned  from  the  three,  for  brevity's  sake  are 
omitted. — Those  who  stand  by,  and  wlio  are  bidden  to  take  his  pound 
from  the  slothful  servant,!  and  give  it  to  him  that  had  shown  himself 
the  faithfulest,  or,  at  least,  the  ablest  of  all,  are  clearly  the  angels,  who 
never  fail  to  appear  and  take  an  active  part  in  all  scenes  descriptive  of 
the  final  judgment. |; 

When  toe  king  has  thus  distributed  praise  and  blame,  rewards  and 
penalties,  to  those  who  stand  in  the  more  immediate  relations  of  ser- 
vants to  him,  to  those  of  his  own  household, — for  the  Church  is  the 
household  of  God, — he  proceeds  to  execute  vengeance  on  his  enemies, 
— on  all  who  had  openly  cast  off  allegiance  to  him,  and  denied  that  they 
belonged  to  his  house  at  all.  (Prov.  xx.  8  )  At  his  command  they  are 
brought  before  him,  and  slain  before  his  face  ;  as  their  guilt  was  greater, 
so  their  punishment  is  more  terrible  than  that  of  the  slothful  servant. 
In  the  Marriage  of  the  King's  Son  (Matt.  xxii.  1)  the  vengeance  on  the 
open  enemies  goes  before  that  on  the  hypocritical  friend  or  servant ; — 

*  Thus  Ambrose  {Ep.  in  Laic.  1.  8,  c.  95):  De  aliis  silctur,  qui  quasi  prodigi 
debitorcs.  quod  acccperant.  perdidcrunt. 

t  It  is  characteristic  that  the  croi/Sapioc  (sudarium)  which,  not  exerting  himself, 
this  idle  servant  does  not  need  for  its  proper  use  ('in  the  sveat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  bread."  Gen.  iii.  19),  he  uses  for  tlie  \\Tapj)ing  up  of  liis  ])Ound.  That  he 
had  it  disengaged,  and  so  free  to  be  turned  to  this  purpose,  was  itself  a  witness 
against  him. 

\  Dschelaleddin.  whom  Von  Hammer  speaks  of  as  the  great  religious  poet  of 
the  modem  East,  has  an  int<3resting  little  poem  resting  on  the  same  idea  as  that  of 
the  present  parable, — namely,  that  of  life  with  all  its  powers  and  facultie.s',  as  a 
sum  of  money  to  be  laid  out  for  God.  As  it  is  brief  I  will  subjoin  a  translation, 
made,  indeed,  through  the  German.     (See  Ruckkkt's  Gedichte,  v.  2,  p.  451.) 

O  thou  thai  art  arrived  in  beinji's  lanii, 

Nor  knowcst  how  thy  coming  here  wa.i  planned; 

Prom  the  Schah's  palace  to  life's  city,  thou 

On  his  affairs  wert  sent,  at  his  cominand. 

Thee  thy  Lord  gave,  thy  faiihfidness  to  prove, 

The  sum  of  life,  a  capital  in  hand. 

Ilast  thou  forgotten  thine  intrusted  pound? 

Stunned  with  the  market's  htibhub  dost  thou  standi 

Instead  of  dreaming,  up  and  purchase  good; 

Buy  precious  stones,  exchange  nut  gold  for  sand. 

Thou  at  the  hiuir  nf  thy  rcnirn  wilt  see 

Thy  Monarch  set,  with  open  hook  in  hand. 

What  thou  frotn  him  receivedsi,  he  will  bring 

To  strict  account,  and  reckoning  will  demand: 

And  a  large  blessing,  or  a  curse  from  him, 

Thv  faithfulness  or  sloth  will  then  command. 


422  THE  POUNDS. 

here  it  follows  after.  This  slaying  of  the  king's  enemies  in  his  presence 
is  not  to  be  in  the  interpretation  mitigated  or  explained  away,  as  though 
it  belonged  merely  to  the  outer  shell  of  the  parable,  and  was  only  added 
because  such  things  were  done  in  Eastern  courts  (1  Sam.  x.  27;  xi. 
12;  Jer.  liii.  10),  and  to  add  an  air  of  truthfulness  to  the  narrative. 
Rather  it  belongs  also  to  the  innermost  kernel  of  the  parable.  The 
words  set  forth,  fearfully  indeed,  but  not  in  any  way  in  which  we  need 
shrink  from  applying  them  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  his  unmitigated  wrath 
against  his  enemies, — but  only  his  enemies  exactly  as  they  are  enemies 
of  all  righteousness, — which  shall  be  revealed  in  that  day  when  grace 
shall  have  come  to  an  end,  and  judgment  without  mercy  will  have  be- 
gun.* (Rev.  xiv.  10.)  All  this  found  its  nearest  fulfilment  in  the 
overthrow  of  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  terrible  calamities  which  went  be- 
fore and  followed  it :  that  was,  without  doubt,  a  coming  of  Christ  to 
judgment ;  but  it  will  find  its  full  accomplishment,  when  the  wickedness 
of  an  apostate  world,  having  come  to  a  single  head,  shall  in  that  single 
head  receive  its  final  doom. — in  the  final  destruction  of  Antichrist  and 
his  armies. 

*  Augustine  often  uses  this  and  the  parallel  passage,  Matt.  xxii.  13  (as  Con. 
Adv.  Leg.  el  Pro})h.,  1.  1,  c.  16;  Con.  Faust.,  1.  22,  c.  14,  19),  in  argument  with  the 
Manichaeans,  who,  contrasting  the  severity  of  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  with 
the  lenity  of  the  God  of  the  New,  would  have  proved  that  they  were  not,  and 
oould  not  be,  one  and  the  same.  But,  he  replies,  there  is  no  such  contrast.  As 
there  is  love  in  the  Old  Testament,  so  there  is  fear,  and  that  which  should  awaken 
fear,  in  the  New :  and  he  alleges  the  terribleness  of  this  doom  in  proof  The 
Manichaeans  could  not  betake  themselves  to  their  ordinary  evasion,  that  the  pas- 
sage was  an  interpolation  or  a  corriiption,  as  they  accepted  the  parables  (see  Augus- 
tine, Con.  Faust.,  1.  32,  c.  7)  for  part  of  the  uncorrupted  doctrine  of  Christ. — We 
may  compare  Heb.  i.  13,  "till  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool,"  and  we  learn 
from  Josh.  x.  24,  what  the  image  is,  that  lies  under  these  words. 


INDEX. 


'AKpoyuv lotos,  175  n. 

'AvaiSeia.  208  n. 

^AvaTeWfti/,  62  n. 

Ancient  Chrislianiiy,  &c,  83  n. 

Angels  rejoicing,  315. 

Anointing  of  our  Lord's  feet,  239. 

Antichrist,  85. 

Apostasy  of  the  heathen  world,  322. 

'AadiTois,  322  n. 

AuT<$/xaTos,  237  n. 

B. 

Baptism,  132,  135,  329. 
Ba(Tavi(TTT)s,  133  n. 
Bengel,  185  n.,  338  n. 
B(oj,  320  n. 
Byssus,  372  n. 


Calling  of  the  Gentiles,  187. 
Characters  of  different  Gospels  marked 

in  the  Parables  they  record,  30,  31. 
Christ  as  tiic  Good  Shepherd— a  sjth- 

bol  in  the  Early  Ciiurch,  309. 

"  the  heir  of  all  things,"  171. 

his  second  coming,  208. 

Church  in  conflict  here,  401. 

seeking  her  lost,  313. 

Classical  phrases  frequent  in  St.  Luke, 

319  n. 
Covetousncss,  274. 


D. 


Ad-irvov,  293  n. 
Denarius,  145  n. 


Aif^oSoi,  186  n. 

AiKaior,  131. 

Discipline  in  the  Church,  87. 

Distortion  of  the  Parables  by  the  Gnos- 
tics arid  others,  40,  &c. 

Doctrine  not  to  be  grounded  on  Para- 
bles, 39. 

Donatist  idea  of  the  Church,  75-77,  86, 
114. 

AovKfvfiv,  340  n. 

Apfiravov,  238. 

E. 

Ecclesiastes ;  a  commentary  on  the 
Parable  of  the  Pearl,  113  n. 

'EK/SaA.Aeij'  €|co— holiness  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  119. 

'EKAa/iireij/,  89  n. 

"'t.vdv/J.a  ydfiov,  189  n. 

Envy  expressed  by  the  eye,  154  n. 

Esther's  history  applied,  198  n. 

'Eratpos,  153  n. 

EvKa^eta,  227  n. 


Fables,  two  in  the  Old  Testament,  10  n. 
Faith— the  root  of  Charity,  194,  248  n. 

its  nature,  385. 

and  works,  204. 

Feasts  in  the  East  often  political,  179  n. 
Fides  fonuata,  247. 

G. 

Galilaeans,  280  n. 
Tdfioy  TTotfTv,  180  n. 
Genesareth,  lake  of,  58. 


424 


INDEX. 


H. 

Harmony  between  things  seen  and  un- 
seen, 19-22. 

Hezekiali's  reformation  (2  Cln-on.  xxx. 
10)  a  parallel  to  "The  Marriage  of 
the  King's  Son,"  185  n. 

Historico-prophetic  School  of  interpre- 
ters, 43. 

Hoiu's  of  the  Jews,  146  n. 

Hymn  of  Prudentius,  306  n. 


Interpretation  of  Two  Parables  by  our 
Lord,  36. 


Judaea :  its  natural  position,  165. 
Justin  Martyr's  Conversion,  105. 

K. 

KaAe?;'  and  /cAiVis — of  invitation,  293  n. 
Karapyelv.  286  n. 
Kavauv,  150  n. 
Kepa-Tiov,  324  n. 
K€(pa\aiovi',  168  n. 

L. 

'■Laborers  in  the  Vineyard" — Jewish 
and  Mahometan  Version  of  the  Para- 
ble, 150  n. 

Lamp,  small,  211  n. 

Lazarus,  373  n. 

Leaven,  97  n. 

Lenity  of  supposition  in  our  Lord's 
Parables,  193. 

ArjvSs,  165  n. 

AtKfMav,  176  n. 

M. 

Maldonatus,  263  n. 

Mammon,  359  n. 

Man  of  Sin,  194. 

Marcion,  182  n. 

Men  compared  to  trees,  285. 

Mfpi'juva.  66  n. 

Mepio-Ti'js.  272  n. 

Mera/xeAeia  and  fxiravoia,  160  n. 


Metayer  system  of  letting  Estates,  168  n. 
Midnight,  Christ's  second  coming  at, 

210. 
Millennium,  202. 

Miracles,  in  what  like  the  Parables,  22. 
Mustard-tree,  92  n. 

N. 

Naboth's  death  a  type  of  Christ's,  172  n. 

National  life,  173. 

Nature's  present  bondage,  22. 


O. 


OiKov6ixos,  347  n. 


Xlai^iov,  268  n. 

Parable :   wherein  it  differs  from  (i.) 

The  fable,  10.     (ii.)  The  mythus,  12. 

(iii.)   The   proverb,   13.      (iv.)   The 

allegory,  14. 
Parables  in  use  before  our  Lord's  time, 

46. 
other  than  our  Lord's,     (i.) 

Jewish,  48-53, 197  n.    (ii.)  Christian, 

53-68. 

acted,  29. 

the  Seven  of  St.  Matthew,  xiii. 


54 :  their  relation,  122. 
of  "  The  Ten  Virgins  "  and 

"  The  Marriage  of  the  King's  Sou," 

their  difference,  216. 
of  "  The  Talents,"  and  "  The 

Pounds,"  different,  416. 
of    "  The    Marriage    of   the 


King's  Son,"  and  "  The  Great  Sup- 
per" compared,  177,  299. 

TlapaiTtiff^ai,  294  n. 

TlapabaXacraios — why  applied  to  Caper- 
naum, 58  n. 

XlapaTi^ivai,  73  n. 

Xlapeais  and  afecris,  288  n. 

Xlapot/xla,  13. 

rieipdCeiv,  252  n. 

^luovv.  192  n. 

^payij.6s,  164  n. 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  an  allegory,  15  n. 

UKeovi^ia,  271  n. 

n\ovTi7v  els  ©eiv  (St.  Luke  xii.  15), 
273  n. 


INDEX. 


425 


Xloinipov.  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  mascu- 

lino,  403  n. 
Prayer.  399. 

Pro-parabola  and  epi-parabola,  37. 
Publicans,  317. 
Purgatory,  135. 
Tlvpyos,  1G5  n. 
Putting  on  Christ,  194. 

R. 

Readings  of  the    Greek    Testament: 

Matt,  xviii.  28,  130  n. 

xxi.  30,  158  n.  and  160. 

xxi.  44,  175  n. 

XXV  13,  215  n. 
Luke  xvi.  9,  361  n. 

xviii.  14.  414  n. 
Reward,  its  meaning,  156  n. 
Righteousness  not  by  the  Law,  259. 


Sacraments  and  the  Church,  261,  262. 

Soy^fT),  117  n. 

Salmcron's  division  of  a  Parable,  38  n. 

Samaritans  not  a  mingled  people,  255  n. 

Sairpdr.  118  n. 

Satan  and  liis  agency  progressively  un- 
folded in  Scripture,  79. 

"Seventy  times  seven,"  124. 

Siloam,  283  n. 

Sin  and  Suffering :  their  connection, 
282  n. 

Sins :  whether  if  once  forgiven  they 
can  return,  134. 

liKavSaKov.  ^8  n. 

S/c^vT).  363  n. 

2(c\7jpdy  227  n. 

Slaves  in  Antiquity,  221. 

Son  of  Man :  force  of  the  Name,  74. 


Standing  a  posture  of  prayer  in   the 

Early  Church,  410. 
Story  illustrative  of  "  The  Unmerciful 

Servant,"  137  n. 
^vyKvpia,  254  n. 
2vm-(\iia  rov  alwi/oi.  87  n. 
Supererogation,  works  of,  213,  398, 
Swedenborg,  40  n. 


Talent :  use  of  the  word  in  English,  222. 

Te\eiT(pope7i/.  65  n. 

TfA&Jj/Tjs.  3(J)  n. 

Tcrtullian  317. 

&r)(Tavp6s.  103  n. 

Tok6s.  229  II. 

Traditional  .siiyings  of  our  Lord,  229  n. 

Tribulation :   derivation  of  the  word, 

64  n. 
Types  =  Parables,  29. 
TjiMcal  personages,  24. 


U. 


'TTToS'^/uaTo,  336  n. 
"TiranndCtiv,  403  n. 


Vintage  and  harvest :  Bishop  Horsley's 
distinction,  87  n. 

W. 

White  Garments,  191  n. 

"Wilderness:  meaning  of  the  word  in 
Scripture.  305. 

Works,  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, of  three  kinds,  285. 


Zi^ai'ioj',  80  n. 


THE    END. 


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bury. With  an  Appendix,  containing  the  Augsburg  Confession,  Creed  of  Pope 
Pius  IV  ,  &LC.  Revised  and  corrected  with  copious  Notes  and  Additional  Refer- 
ences, by  the  Rev.  James  R.  Page,  A.M.     One  handsome  8vo  volume,  $2,00 

Bwrnet. — Hie  History  of  the  Reformation   of  the 

Church  of  England.  By  Gilbert  Burnet,  D.D.,  late  Lord  Bishop  of  Salisbury  ; 
with  the  Collection  of  Records  and  a  copious  Index,  revised  and  corrected, 
with  Additional  Notes  and  a  Preface,  by  the  Rev.  E.  Nares,  D.D.  Illustrated 
with  twenty-three  engraved  Portraits.     4  vols.,  $8,00.     Reduced  to  $6,00. 

A  cheap  edition  is  printed,  containing  the  History  in  .hree  volumes,  without  the  Records, 
wnich  form  the  fourth  volume  of  the  above.     Price,  $'2,50. 

Bea/ven. — A.  Help  to  Catechising. 

For  the  use  of  Clergymen,  Schools,  and  Private  Families.  By  James  Beatsn 
D.D.,  Professor  of  Theology  at  King's  College,  Toronto.  Revised  and  adapted 
to  the  use  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Chuich  in  the  United  Slates.  By  Henry 
Anthon,  D  D.     18mo,  paper,  6^  cents. 

Bradley. — Family  and  Parish  Sermons : 

Preached  at  Clapham  and  Glasbury.  By  the  Rev.  Charles  Bradli£T.  Fron 
the  sevdnih  London  edilioa.     Two  volumes  in  one,  8vo,  $1,25. 

7 


Appletons'  Catalogue  of  Valuable  Publications. 

KELIGIOUS. 

BooJs  of  Coiivmon  Prayer — New  Standa/rd  Edition. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  othei 
Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  use  of  the  Protestanl 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  together  with  the  Psalter  or 
Psalms  of  David.  Illustrated  with  Steel  Engravings  by  Overbeck,  and  a  finely 
illuminated  title  page,  in  various  elegant  bindings.     Five  different  sizes. 

Bradley. — Practical  Sermons 

For  every  Sunday  throughout  the  year  and  principal  holidays.     Two  TcomeA 
of  English  edition  in  one  8vo,  $1,50. 
J£^  The  above  two  volumes  may  be  bound  in  one.    Price,  $2,00. 

Oruden. — Concorda/nce  of  the  New  Testa/ment. 

By  Alexander  Cruden,  M.A.  With  a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  by  W.  Young* 
man.  Abridged  from  the  last  London  edition,  by  William  Patton,  D.D.  Por- 
trait.    One  volume,  32mo,  sheep,  50  cents. 

Cotter. — The  Mass  and  Piihrics 

Of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  translated  into  English,  with  Notes  and  Re- 
marks.    By  the  Rev.  John  R.  Cotter,  A.M.     18mo,  50  cents. 

Clarhe. — Scriptwre  Promises.^ 

Under  their  proper  heads,  representing  the  Blessings  Promised,  and  the  Duties 
to  which  Promises  are  made.     By  Samuel.  Clarke,  D.D.     37^  cents. 

Evans. — The  Rectory  of  Valehead  ; 

Or,  The  Records  of  a  Holy  Home.  By  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Evans.  From  the 
twelfth  English  edition.     One  volume,  16mo,  75  cts.     Reduced  to  50  cts. 

Faher. — The  Primitive  Doctrine  of  Election ', 

Or,  an  Historical  Inquiry  into  the  Ideality  and  Causation  of  Scriptural  lOlection, 
as  received  and  maintained  in  the  primitive  Church  of  Christ.  By  Georgb 
Stanley  Faber,  B.D.     One  volume,  8vo,  $1,75. 

Foster. — Essays  on  Christian  Mm^als^ 

Experimental  and  Practical.  Originally  delivered  as  Lectures  at  Broadmead 
Chapel.  Bristol.     By  John  Foster.     One  volume,  iBmo,  50  cents. 

Gresley. — Port/rait  of  a  Churchman. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  Gresley,  A.M.  From  the  seventh  English  edition.  One 
elegant  volume,  16mo,  75  cts.     Reduced  to  50  cts. 

Gresley. — A  Treatise  on  Preaching.^ 

In  a  Series  of  Letters.  By  the  Rev.  W.  Gresley,  M.A.  Revised,  with  Supple- 
mentary Notes,  by  the  Rev.  Benjamin  I.  Haight,  M.A.,  Rector  of  All  Saints^ 
Church,  N.  Y.     One  volume,  12mo,  $1,25. 

Hooh.  — The  Cross  of  Christ  / 

Or,  Meditations  on  the  Death  and  Passion  of  our  Blessed  Lord  and  Saviour. 
Edited  by  W.  F.  Hook,  D.D.,  Vicar  of  Leeds.  l6mo,  63  cts.   Reduced  to 50  cts. 

Hooker. — The  Complete  Works 

Of  that  learned  and  judicious  divine,  Mr.  Richard  Hooker,  with  an  account 
of  his  Life  and  death,  by  Isaac  Walton.  Arranged  by  the  Rev.  John  Keble, 
M.A.  First  American  from  the  last  Oxford  edition.  With  a  complete  general 
Index,  and  Index  of  the  texts  of  Scripture,  prepared  expressly  for  this  edition. 
Two  volumes,  Bvo,  $4,00. 

8 


Appktons'  Catalogue  of  Valuable  Publications. 


KELIGIOUS. 

Ives. — The  Apostles'  Doctrine  and  Felloivship  ; 

'  Five  Sermons,  preached  in  the  principal  Churches  of  his  Diocese,  during  hia 
Spring  Visitation,  1844.  By  the  Right  Rev.  L.  S.  Ives,  D.D.,  LL.D.  16mo 
63  cents.     Reduced  to  50  cents. 

James. — Hajypiness^  its  Natiut'e  and  Sov/rces. 

By  Rev.  John  Angell  James.     One  volume,  32mo,  25  cents. 

lamies. — The  Young  3f an  from  Home. 

In  a  Series  of  Lectures,  especially  intended  for  the  Moral  Advancement  of 
Youth.     By  Rev.  John  Angell  James.     Fifth  edition.     One  vol.  18mo,  38  eta. 

Jamies. — The  Widow  Directed 

To  the  Widowf's  God.  By  Rev.  John  Angell  James.  One  vol.  18mo, 
38  cents. 

Jarvis. — A  Reply  to  Doctor  M liner's  "  End  of  Reli- 
gious Controversy,"  so  far  as  the  Churches  of  the  English  Communion  are 
concerned.     By  Samuel  Farmar  Jarvis,  D.D.,  LL.D.     12mo,  75  cents. 

Keble. — The  Christian  Year. 

Thoughts  in  Verse  for  the  Sundays  and  Holidays  throughout  the  Year.  16mo, 
75  cents;  illustrated,  $1,00. 

Kingsley. — Tlie  Sacred  Choir. 

A  Collection  of  Church  Music,  consisting  of  Selections  from  the  most  distin- 
guished Authors,  among  whom  are  the  names  of  Haydn,  Mozart,  Beethoven, 
Pergolessi,  »fec.,  &c  ,  with  several  pieces  of  Music  by  the  Author ;  also  a  Pro- 
gressive Elementary  System  of  Instruction  for  Pupils.  By  George  Kingsley, 
Author  of  the  Social  Choir,  &c.,  &c.     A  new  edition.     75  cents. 

LiijJit  in  the  Dwelling  ^' 

Or,  a  Harmony  of  the  Four  Gospels,  with  short  and  simple  Remarks,  adapted 
to  Reading  at  Fnmily  Prayers,  and  arranged  in  365  sections,  for  every  day  in 
the  year.  By  the  author  of"  Peep  of  Day,"  "  Line  upon  Line,"  etc.,  etc.  One 
"olume,  Pvo,'$l,75. 

Jji/ra  Apostolica. 

From  the  Fifth  English  edition.     One  elegantly-printed  volume,  75  cts. 

Magee — On  Atonement  and  Sacrifice. 

Discourses  and  Dissertations  on  the  Scriptural  Doctrines  of  Atonement  and 
Sacrifice,  and  on  the  Principal  Arguments  advanced,  and  the  Mode  of  Reason- 
ing employed  by  the  Opponents  of  those  Doctrines,  as  held  by  the  Established 
Church.  By  the  |;itp  most  Rev.  William  Magee,  D.  D.,  Archbishop  of  Dublin. 
Two  volumes,  Hvo,  $5,00. 

Mar\-halL — Notes  on  the  Episcopal  Polity 

Of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  with  some  account  oft  he  Developments  of  Mo- 
dern Relitjions  Systems  By  Thomas  William  Marshall,  B.  A.,  of  the  Dio- 
cese of  Salisbury.  Edited  by  Jonathan  M.  Wainwright,  D  D.  With  a  new 
and  compl>''e  Index  of  the  Subjects  and  of  the  Texts  of  Scripture.  One  vol. 
12mo,  )|1,25.     Reduced  to  $1,00. 

Manning. — T'he  Unity  of  the  Chwrch. 

By  the  Rev.  Henry  Edward  Manning,  M.  A.,  Archdeacon  of  Chichester. 
One  volume,  l6ino,  $2,00.     Reduced  to  75  eta. 

0 


Appletons'  Catalogue  cf  Valuable  Publications. 

KELIGIOUS. 

Maurice. — The  Kingdom  of  GJwist  / 

Or,  Hints  respecting  the  Principles,  Constitution  and  Ordinances  of  the  Catholio 
Church.  By  Rev.  Frederic  Denison  Maurice,  M.  A.,  London.  One  Tolumet 
8vo,  600  pages,  $250. 

Matrimomj. — Tlie  Manual  of  Mat/rimony^ 

And  Connubial  Companion  ;  gathered  together  for  the  Safety  of  the  Single, 
and  the  Weal  of  the  Wedded.  By  a  Bachelor.     One  volume,  miniature  size,  31^ 

More. — Practical  Piety. 

By  Han.nah  More.     Two  volumes,  32mo,  frontispieces,  75  cts. 

More. — Private  Devotion : 

A  Series  of  Prayers  and  Meditations,  with  an  Introductory  Essay  on  Prayer 
chiefly  from  the  writings  of  Hannah  More.  From  the  twenty-fifth  London 
edition.     One  volume,  32mo,  frontispiece,  cloth  gilt,  31  cts. 

Newman. — Parochial  Sermons. 

By  John  Henry  Newman,  B.D.  Six  volumes  of  the  English  edition  in  two 
vols.  8vo,  f  .'),00. 

Newman. — Sermons  hearing  on  Subjects  of  the  Pay. 

By  John  Henry  Newman,  B.D.     1  vol.,  12mo.    Reduced  to  $1,00. 

Ogilby. — On  Lay-Baptism. 

An  Outline  of  the  Argument  against  the  Validity  of  Lay-Baptism.  By  John 
D.  Ogilby,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History.     One  vol.,  12mo,  75  eta. 

Ogilhy. — Catholic  Qhurch  in  Pngland  and  America. 

Three  Lectures:  L  The  Church  in  England  and  America,  Apostolic  and  Cath- 
olic. H.  The  Causes  of  the  English  Reformation.  111.  Its  Character  and  Re- 
sells.    By  John  D.  Ogilby,  D.D.     Reduced  to  50  cts. 

Palmer. — A  Treatise  on  the  Church  of  Christ. 

Designed  chiefly  for  the  use  of  Students  in  Theology.  By  the  Rev.  William 
Palmer,  M.  A  ,  of  Worcester  College,  Oxford.  Edited,  with  Notes,  by  the 
Right  Rev.  W.  R.  Whittingham,  D.D  ,  Bishop  of  the  Prot.  Epis.  Church  in  the 
Diocese  of  Maryland.     Two  volumes,  8vo,  $5,00. 

Parables  of  our  Lord  ', 

Richly  illuminated  with  appropriate  borders  printed  in  colors,  and  in  black  and 
gold  ;  with  a  design  from  one  of  the  early  German  engravers.  Square  fcp.  8vo, 
in  a  massive  carved  binding,  in  the  style  of  the  beginning  of  the  16th  century. 
Price  $3,50. 

Pa^et. — Tales  of  the  Village. 

By  the  Rev.  Francis  E.  Paget,  M.  A.     3  vols.,  18mo,     Reduced  to  $1,25. 

Pearson. — An  Phcposition  of  the  Creed. 

By  John  Pearson,  D.D.,  late  Bishop  of  Chester.  With  an  Appendix,  contain- 
ing the  principal  Greek  and  Latin  Creeds.  Revised  and  corrected  by  the  Rev. 
W.  S.  Dobson,  M.  A.,  Peterhouse,  Cambridge.     One  vol.  8vo,  $2,00. 

Philip.— Devotional  and  Experimental  Guides. 

By  Robert  Philip.  With  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Rev.  Albert  Bamea. 
Two  volumes,  12mo,  $1,75.  Containing  Guide  to  the  Perplexed.  Guide  to 
the  Devotional,  Guide  to  the  Thoughtful,  Guide  to  the  Doubting,  Guide  to 
the  Conscientious,  Guide  to  Redemption. 

10 


Appleions*  Catalogue  of  Valuable  Publications. 


RELIGIOUS. 

Philip. —  Young  Man^s  Closet  lAhrary. 

By  Robert  Philip.  With  an  Introductory  Essay  by  Rev.  Albert  Bamea. 
12ino,  $1,00. 

Philip. — Ladifs  Closet  Library. 

The  Marys,  or  Bea-uty  of  Female  Holiness  ;  The  Marthas,  or  Varieties  of  Fe- 
male  Piety;  The  Lydias.or  Development  of  Female  Character  ;  The  Hannahs, 
or  Maternal  Influence  of  Sons.     By  Robert  Philip.     Each  vol.,  18mo,  50  eta. 

Philip. — Love  of  the  Spirit  t/raced  in  7iis  Worlc ; 

A  Companion  to  the  Experimental  Guides.  By  Robert  Philip.  One  Tclame, 
18mo,  50  cts. 

Psalter,  The;  or  Psahn^s  of  Pavid : 

Together  with  the  Canticles  of  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  and  Occasion* 
al  Offices  of  the  Church,  figured  for  Chanting :  to  which  are  prefixed  an  Ex- 
planatory Preface  and  a  Selection  of  Chants.  Edited  by  W.  A.  Mulenbeboh, 
D.D.     1  vol.  12mo,  50  cts.     Cheap  binding,  38  cts. 

Pulpit  CyclopcBdia  and  Minister'' s  Companion. 

Containing  three  hundred  and  sixty  Skeletons  and  Sketches  of  Sermons,  and 
eighty-two  Essays  on  Biblical  Learning,  Theological  Studies,  and  the  Compo- 
sition and  Delivery  of  Sermons.  By  the  Author  of  "  Sketches  and  Skeletons 
of  400  Sermons,"  "  Christian  Daily  Portion,"  etc.  The  London  edition  of  four 
volumes  complete  in  one  8vo.  vol.  of  over  600  pages,  $2,50. 

Sermons. 

Five  Hundred  Sketches  and  Skeletons  of  Sermons,  suited  for  all  occasions  ; 
including  nearly  one  hundred  on  Types  and  Metaphors.  By  the  author  of 
Pulpit  Cyclopajdia.     Large  8vo,  $2,50. 

Sherlocl'. — The  Practical  Christian  ; 

Or,  the  Devout  Penitent ;  a  Book  of  Devotion,  containing  the  Whole  Duty  of  a 
Christian  in  all  Occasions  and  Necessities,  fitted  to  the  main  use  of  a  holy  life. 
By  R.  Sherlock,  D.D.  With  a  Life  of  the  Author,  by  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop 
Wilson.     Author  of"  Sacra  Privata,"  &,c.     16mo.     Reduced  to  75  cents. 

Spencer. — The  Christian  Instructed 

In  the  W.-iys  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Church,  in  a  series  of  Discourses  delivered 
at  St.  James's  Church,  Goshen,  N.  Y.  By  the  Rev,  J.  A.  Spencer,  M.A.,  late 
Rector.     One  volume,  l6mo.     Reduced  to  $1,00. 

Spinclces. — Manual  of  Private  Demotion: 

Collected  from  the  writings  of  Archbishop  Laud,  Bishop  Andrews,  Bishop  Ken, 
Dr.  Hickes,  Mr.  Kettlewell,  Mr.  Spinckes,  and  other  eminent  old  English 
divines.  With  a  Preface  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spinckes.  Edited  by  Francis  E. 
Paget,  M.A.     One  elegant  volume,  16mo.     Reduced  to  75  cents. 

Sutton. — DisceVivere — Learn  to  Live: 

Wherein  is  shown  that  the  Life  of  Christ  is  and  ought  to  be  an  Express  Pattern 
for  Imitation  unto  the  Life  of  a  Christian.  By  Christopher  Sotton,  D.D. 
16mo.     Reduced  to  75  cents. 

Swart. — Letters  to  My  Godchild. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Swart,  A.M.,  of  the  Diocese  of  Western  New- York.  One 
volume,  32mo,  cloth,  gilt  leaves,  38  cents. 

11 


Appletons'  Catalogue  of  Valuable  Puhhcations. 

EELIGIOUS. 

Self-Moamination  • 

A  Form  of  Self-Examination,  with  a  few  Directions  for  Daily  Use.  32tno,  64  ct». 

Taylor^  Bisliop  Jeremy. — Hol/y  Liming  a/nd  Dying. 

A  new  edition.     One  volume  l2mo,  $1,00. 

Taylor. — Tlie  Sacred  Order  and  Offices  of  Mpisco- 

pacy  Asserted  and  Maintained ;  to  which  is  added,  Clerus  Domini,  a  Discourse 
on  the  Office  Ministerial.     By  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylok,  D.D.    16mo,  75  cts. 

Taylor. — TJie  Golden  Grove: 

A  choice  Manual,  containing  what  is  to  be  Believed,  Practised,  and  Desired, 
or  Prayed  for  ;  the  Prayers  being  fitted  for  the  several  Days  of  the  Week.  To 
which  is  added,  a  Guide  for  the  Penitent.  Also,  Festival  Hymns,  &c.  By  the 
Right  Rev.  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor.     One  volume,  l6mo,  50  cents. 

Trench. — Notes  on  the  Parahles  of  owe  Lord. 

By  the  Rev.  Rich'd  C.  Trench,  M.A.  From  the  3d  Lond.  ed.  1  vol.  8vo,  $1,75. 

Watson. — Lect/iires  on  Confh'mation. 

The  Pastor  Preparing  his  Flock  for  Confirmation  ;  four  Lectures.  By  the 
Rev.  Alex.  Watson,  A.M.  18mo,  12^  cents. 

Whiston. — The  Constitution  of  the  Hol/y  Apostles^ 

Including  the  Canons ;  Whiston's  version,  revised  from  the  Greek  ;  with  a 
Prize  Essay  at  the  University  of  Bonn,  upon  their  origin  and  contents  ;  trans- 
lated fi-om  the  German  by  the  Rev.  Ira  Chase,  D.D.     1  vol.  8vo,  $2,50. 

Wilherforce. — Marmialfor  Commwnica/nts  ; 

Or,  The  Order  for  Administering  the  Holy  Communion  ;  conveniently  arranged 
with  Meditations  and  Prayers  from  old  English  Divines ;  being  the  Eucharis- 
tica  of  S/MUEL  Wilberforce,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Oxford.     38  cents. 

Wilson. — JExpository  Lectures  on  St.  PauVs  Lpisfle 

to  the  Colossinns  ;  in  which  the  Apostle's  argument  respecting  the  Errors  on 
the  subject  of  the  Mediation  of  Christ,  prevailing  at  Colosse,  is  applied  to  the 
present  Circumstances  of  our  Protestant  Church.  By  Daniel  Wilson,  Bif?hop 
of  Calcutta.     One  volume,  12mo.     Reduced  to  75  cents. 

Wo77ie7i  of  the  Bible., 

Delineated  in  a  Series  of  Sketches  of  remarkable  Females  mentioned  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Illustrated  by  eighteen  charactrristic  Steel  Engravings. 
Edited  by  J.  M.  Wainwright,  D.D.  One  volume  imperial  8vo,  embossed 
leather,  $7,00 ;  morocco  elegant,  $10,00. 

Women  of  the  Neio  Testa^nefnt., 

Delineated  in  a  Series  of  Sketches.  Illustrated  with  eighteen  beautiful  Steel 
Engravings.  Edited  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Sprague.  One  volume  imperial  8vo,  to 
match  "  Women  of  the  Bible." 

Wyatt. — The  Christian  Altar  ; 

Or,  Office  of  Devotion  for  the  use  of  persons  receiving  the  Lord's  Supper :  to- 
gether with  a  Treatise  relating  to  that  Sacrament,  and  Directions  for  the  Com- 
municant's daily  walk  with  God.     Third  edition,  18mo,  37^  cents. 

Wilson. — Sacra  PriA)ata. 

The  Private  Meditations,  Devotions,  and  Prayers  of  Rt.  Rev.  T.  Wilson,  D.D., 
Lord  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man.     Complete  edition.     16mo,  75  cents. 

12 


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